{"id":13441,"date":"2026-02-19T22:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jays-keep-hot-streak-going-with-senior-night-win-over-dove-creek\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:37:22","slug":"jays-keep-hot-streak-going-with-senior-night-win-over-dove-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jays-keep-hot-streak-going-with-senior-night-win-over-dove-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Jays keep hot streak going with Senior Night win over Dove Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos sophomore Tinsley Aspromonte and Dove Creek senior Hadley Hatfield tussle for a loose ball in a contest between the Bluejays and Bulldogs at MHS on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MANCOS \u2013 After weeks of searching for their identity, the Mancos girls basketball team seems to have cracked the code at the expense of every opponent in their path.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays leaned on consistent defensive pressure to wear down visiting Dove Creek on their way to their fourth straight win, a nail-biting 33-30 victory Tuesday night that snapped a 13-game skid against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Second-year MHS head coach Julie Oliver has her system humming. Mancos collapsed on double-teams and jumped passing lanes, particularly in the paint, to frustrate the visitors. The Bulldogs posed an equally oppressive defense, making points precious and magnifying every scoring run.<\/p>\n

Mancos (8-9, 6-4 3A\/2A\/1A SJBL) produced two of those runs in the first half to take the lead. The first came from freshman Tymbri Priestley and junior Chelsey Kramer, who scored three points apiece to give the Bluejays a 9-6 advantage after one quarter. Then, in the second quarter, sophomore Tinsley Aspromonte tallied all 11 of the team\u2019s points, heating up from the perimeter to counter Dove Creek senior Taylor Hampton\u2019s six-point burst.<\/p>\n

Up five at the break, Mancos saw its lead climb to eight at several points in the third and early fourth quarters. Even when the Bulldogs (12-8, 6-4 3A\/2A\/1A SJBL) closed within two thanks to a series of baskets from junior Mykaela Fury, the Bluejays ensured their edge never fully disappeared.<\/p>\n

On Senior Night, Class of 2026 member Tyla Henry scored her lone basket, and classmate Destiny Kramer sank her fourth free throw of the night to help Mancos close it out. The MHS defense stymied the final Bulldog push, securing the program\u2019s first win over Dove Creek since 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan was to have me sag off and help guard Taylor (Hampton),\u201d said Destiny Kramer. \u201cAnd we wanted to make sure we slowed down our offense, worked the ball around, and made their defense tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Taylor Hampton rises for a shot against a pair of Mancos defenders in a contest between the Bluejays and Bulldogs at MHS on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Aspromonte\u2019s 16 points led all scorers, but balanced production proved key. Priestley and Chelsey Kramer each scored five, Destiny Kramer added four, Henry scored two, and senior Caylee Moore contributed a free throw.<\/p>\n

In their four-game winning streak, offensive patience has been a focus. \u201cWe wanted to not be as spastic with our offense, and keep swinging the ball until we get a good shot,\u201d Destiny Kramer said.<\/p>\n

Fury scored eight of Dove Creek\u2019s 15 second-half points and finished with nine overall. Hampton continued to inch toward 1,000 career points with a team-high 11. Senior Hadley Hatfield added a basket in each quarter for 10 points. Senior Ambrynn Huffaker created several steals with her quick hands, but the Bulldogs dropped their third straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotion on a day like this, but we were able to keep our composure,\u201d Kramer said, noting the intensity of Senior Night and her foul trouble. \u201cWe were able to hold it together all the way to the end. It\u2019s nice to finally get a win against Dove Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dove Creek closes the regular season with three home games: Ouray on Feb. 20; James Irwin in a nonleague matchup on Feb. 21; and Senior Night on Feb. 27 against Ridgway.<\/p>\n

Mancos faces Center on Feb. 21 before finishing its regular season on the road at Telluride on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

offense, sturdy defense aids Mancos to first win over Bulldogs in eight years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13441","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=13441"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20662,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13441\/revisions\/20662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13441"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}