{"id":13439,"date":"2026-02-19T22:05:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/21-and-not-done\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:37:21","slug":"21-and-not-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/21-and-not-done\/","title":{"rendered":"21 and not done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Trey Hall (3) concentrates on a long jumper over Ignacio's Trace Crane, left, and Sonny Flores during 3A\/4A Intermountain League action Tuesday evening inside IHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Well aware of 3A\/4A Intermountain League sleeper Monte Vista\u2019s underrated capability, particularly when given the chance to stun a superior squad, Montezuma-Cortez head coach Michael Hall reminded his boys that welcoming a side from the San Luis Valley this weekend wouldn\u2019t be any easier than prevailing Tuesday evening in the Pine River Valley against Ignacio.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, in Ignacio, the Panthers didn\u2019t find themselves ensnared by any situation in which they\u2019d do anything desperate to escape with victory. After junior Trey Hall made an ice-breaking free throw with 6:12 left in the first quarter, Montezuma-Cortez never let the hosting Bobcats get any closer than 6-2, and ultimately left IHS Gymnasium with a 56-24 victory.<\/p>\n

M-CHS improved to 21-0 overall and 10-0 in the IML with the win, while Ignacio dropped to 8-12 overall and 1-9 IML.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing smart with our shots, shooting our shots \u2026 helped us get this,\u201d sophomore guard Royce Watts said. \u201cPushing the ball and keeping the tempo up. Trey had a couple of dunks and that helped our momentum, which made our scoring high, you know? The whole team contributed.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS\u2019 reserves combined for 19 points to IHS\u2019 0, with sophomore Brooks Story\u2019s late catch of a pass from senior regular Trace Hartsoe and close-range conversion capping the contest\u2019s scoring. Junior Kyler Wyatt booked all his eight points after halftime, and junior Kaleb Schmitt totaled seven \u2013 including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, sewing up the first frame and increasing the Panthers\u2019 lead to 15-3 through eight minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe emphasize every day that when our bench comes in, the same intensity, the same scoring and the same defense has to stay \u2013 and those boys are good at it,\u201d Hall said of his subs. \u201cThey\u2019re good at coming off the bench and can just keep us going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering the week still ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, but without injured sophomore guard Ah-Dae Lang, Montezuma-Cortez began steadily squeezing its upper hand tighter during the second quarter, and went into halftime up 27-9 after Watts made a short-range pull-up transition jumper with barely three seconds left.<\/p>\n

M-CHS started the third quarter with a 7-1 burst, and led 34-10 before Ignacio senior forward Trace Crane stepped out onto the deep left wing and, with 3:59 left, drilled Ignacio\u2019s second, and last, 3-pointer. But when the Panthers caused a turnover, then got out and ran in open space, there was virtually no stopping them.<\/p>\n

Especially high-flyer Trey Hall, who finished multiple fast breaks with two-handed jams (on, appropriately, NBA legend Michael Jordan\u2019s birthday) \u2013 including one which inflated Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s cushion to 42-17 at quarter\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Crane converted a conventional 3-point \u2018and-one\u2019 play during the final frame, and the Bobcats also got a hard-earned hoop inside from senior Rance Rathjen plus an improvised backward scoop shot from senior Sonny Flores, but Trey Hall\u2019s last two buckets helped curb any enthusiasm IHS\u2019 few successes may have generated before skipper Hall emptied his bench once and for all.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Sonny Flores (1) lifts up a running shot before Montezuma-Cortez's Kaleb Schmitt (4) can defend during 3A\/4A Intermountain League action Tuesday evening inside IHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hall finished with a game-high 18 points, while Hartsoe ended up with eight points while also leading the defensive effort which limited IHS\u2019 versatile Crane to 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the other night, when we played Pagosa (against whom Lang reportedly hyperextended a knee), we didn\u2019t play very good, so tonight I was really pleased with how our defense looked,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe gave up some easy buckets when we probably shouldn\u2019t have, but I think a lot of it was scrambling, some tipped balls and stuff \u2026. So we were really emphasizing defense, and I was pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignacio will, if expected wintry weather permits, next host 4A Alamosa (8-13, 3-7 IML) on Friday for a 7 p.m. start on senior night, then conclude regular-season play by invading aforementioned Monte Vista the next afternoon at four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still-unbeaten M-CHS wins 56-24 at Ignacio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[679,642,1235,846,36,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-ignacio","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18977,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439\/revisions\/18977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13439"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}