{"id":15276,"date":"2025-12-12T00:41:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bobcats-boys-basketball-dominates-blue-jays-in-opener\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:53","slug":"bobcats-boys-basketball-dominates-blue-jays-in-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bobcats-boys-basketball-dominates-blue-jays-in-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobcats boys basketball dominates Blue Jays in opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Trace Crane (3) prepares to whip a pass forward as he starts a fast break during the team's season-opener Tuesday night against Mancos inside IHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Seldom has a missed dunk turned out so well.<\/p>\n

Ignacio senior Trace Crane\u2019s try for a two-handed breakaway flush late in the Bobcats\u2019 2025-26 opener Tuesday night against Mancos was impressive, but sophomore reserve Joseph Atencio\u2019s alert pursuit and putback was even more so as it illustrated every white-clad player\u2019s desire to contribute before an appreciative home crowd.<\/p>\n

All the of the Bobcats\u2019 contributions led to a dominant 76-30 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got so much to improve on,\u201d a grinning Crane said. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad that the younger guys had a chance to play; they\u2019re getting smarter and just need to develop more \u2013 our team is not as deep as last year\u2019s, but we\u2019ve been conditioning and it was a great game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the outcome never in doubt after a dominant first quarter inside IHS Gymnasium, the Bobcats closed the show in fine fashion. Junior Shaun Sanderson gained control of a defensive rebound, and advanced it across midcourt to a teammate who then passed it to senior reserve Zaine Velasquez-Hight at the top of the 3-point perimeter.<\/p>\n

The ball was thrown somewhat behind its recipient, but Velasquez-Hight calmly used his right hand to follow the ball and execute a perfect behind-the-back pass to freshman reserve Keyon Alston. Catching the ball in the far corner across from IHS\u2019 bench, Alston didn\u2019t hesitate in draining a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to polish off the conquest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been training, running a lot \u2013 we\u2019ve been waiting for this,\u201d said senior Rance Rathjen. \u201cDidn\u2019t have a game last week and we\u2019d been craving it. So we\u2019re ready for the season \u2026 and I feel like we\u2019ll size up to some good teams and win the ones we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Crane won the initial jump ball, Ignacio (1-0 overall) struck quickly with close-range conversions by senior Ambrose Valdez and Crane, assisted by Valdez. Rathjen added a basket and junior Thunder Windy Boy sank a free throw, and the Blue Jays (1-2 overall) would get no closer the rest of the game than 7-3 thanks to a 3-pointer by senior Miguel Derizotis.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Ambrose Valdez (22) glides past Mancos' Noah Higinbotham (12) for a close-range shot attempt Tuesday night inside IHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Windy Boy answered with a three, triggering a 10-0 burst at last interrupted by MHS junior A.J. Simmons\u2019 successful old fashioned 3-point play through the fast-moving quarter. Valdez then promptly drained a trey from straight away, rebuilding IHS\u2019 lead to 20-6 with 3:44 still remaining,<\/p>\n

The Bobcats got another inside hoop from Crane and a Rathjen tip-in just before time expired and thus went into the second quarter leading 24-11.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were disciplined out there, went out and had a good game,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cWe all worked together as a team, and showed that we can fight as a team. We have a pretty deep bag this year, can go deep into our bench if we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

MHS\u2019 play improved during the second quarter, and produced four Simmons points inside. Derizotis added three free throws after being fouled on an attempt from the far wing, but the guests still went into halftime down 39-23 as Ignacio ably kept pace.<\/p>\n

The \u2019Cats then increased it beginning the third quarter, and Mancos head coach Rudy Archuleta called a timeout after two Windy Boy baskets and one by Crane inflated IHS\u2019 lead to 45-23 with 6:47 left. Windy Boy totaled nine points in the quarter and Crane eight, and the final frame commenced with IHS in full control, 58-30.<\/p>\n

Crane racked up a game-high 25 points and Windy Boy (3-6 FT) 14. Valdez finished with 14, and also tallied (unofficially) 10 assists and as many steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d made so many mistakes over the summer, and recently in scrimmages, so we built upon those mistakes as we\u2019re going to continue to do,\u201d said Crane, \u201cand we\u2019re just going to keep getting better and more open looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons (3-5 FT) totaled nine points in defeat.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos'
Mancos' A.J. Simmons (30) looks to pass out of a sideline trap applied by Ignacio's Ambrose Valdez (22) and Sonny Flores (1) during action Tuesday night inside IHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ignacio will next travel out to Center for the C-Town Showdown on Friday and Saturday, while Mancos will take part in Cedaredge\u2019s Grand Mesa Classic on the same days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crane\u2019s 25 leads Ignacio in 76-30 home win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,679,642,1235,846,83,37,346,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-ignacio","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-sports","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276","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=15276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19572,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276\/revisions\/19572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15276"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}