{"id":15303,"date":"2025-12-11T10:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-overwhelms-san-juan-to-continue-hot-start\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:38","slug":"montezuma-cortez-overwhelms-san-juan-to-continue-hot-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-overwhelms-san-juan-to-continue-hot-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez overwhelms San Juan to continue hot start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Trace Hartsoe brings the ball upcourt in a contest against San Juan in The Jungle on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 The visiting Broncos weren\u2019t used to losing \u2013 period.<\/p>\n

San Juan\u2019s roster, chock-full of physically imposing athletes from the school\u2019s dynastic football state championship run \u2013 five in a row after they dismantled Utah\u2019s 2A classification again this fall \u2013 looked like trouble for the Panthers. Mike Hall\u2019s team couldn\u2019t have cared less.<\/p>\n

After a back-and-forth opening quarter, M-CHS (2-0) seized control in its second consecutive home contest with a dominant middle 16 minutes \u2013 the Panthers controlled the tempo, won the rebounding battle against a taller San Juan lineup and kept composure to outscore San Juan 40-18 in the second and third quarters on their way to a comfortable 71-40 win.<\/p>\n

The Broncos (4-2) never found an answer for sophomore sensation Ah-dae Lang, who ran rampant against the San Juan defense on his way to a career-high 28 points. Junior Trey Hall scored 17 points despite dealing with foul trouble for most of the night, while senior Trace Hartsoe scored eight of his dozen points in a third-quarter stretch that put the game away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told myself \u2018go be a leader out there,\u2019\u201d said Lang, who elevated his game with Hall on the bench with two fouls in the first quarter, \u201cand Coach Hall trusts me with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS junior Asher Bennetts, tasked with battling 6-foot-4 senior Tripp Palmer \u2013 San Juan\u2019s leading scorer \u2013 gave the Bronco post player fits all night, limiting him well below his season scoring average and to one basket in the second half. A wave of Panther reserves kept up the interior intensity when Bennetts wasn\u2019t on the floor, with junior Kyler Wyatt and sophomore Justin Bane limiting the visitors to one look at the basket on most trips down the floor.<\/p>\n

Six Panthers 3-pointers \u2013 two apiece from Lang, Hall and sophomore Royce Watts \u2013 kept the San Juan defensive zone honest, but most of the damage came attacking the basket, where Lang and Hall either scored or got fouled on drives down the lane. Lang scored eight points in each of the first three quarters to surpass his previous career high of 18 points set in the Panthers\u2019 season-opening win over Aztec.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked hard this offseason learning to be more aggressive \u2013 if I see an opening, I\u2019m going to attack it,\u201d said Lang, who\u2019s added an extra layer to his game along with his deadly perimeter shooting.<\/p>\n

The Panthers led 21-18 after eight minutes, rallying from an early deficit after Broncos senior wing Cole Duke tallied eight of his team-high 12 points in the opening frame. M-CHS shut Duke down for the rest of the night, limiting the Broncos to just nine total field goals over the final three quarters combined.<\/p>\n

Watts scored six points for Hall\u2019s squad, while senior Wyatt Oliver chipped in with a pair of baskets. Duke led the Broncos with 12 points, while Palmer scored 10 and fellow senior Baylor Nielson added seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of this team \u2013 I think we can go far,\u201d said Lang, praising the team\u2019s chemistry and clear roles.<\/p>\n

With the bright start, M-CHS now hits the road to Gallup, New Mexico, for a Friday night encounter with Rehoboth Christian before the Panthers journey to Grand Junction for a series of games over the weekend of Dec. 18-20.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez sophomore Ah-dae Lang drives past his defender in a contest against San Juan in The Jungle on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez junior Kaleb Schmitt looks for a passing option in a contest against San Juan in The Jungle on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

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

Panthers outscores Broncos 50-22 over final three quarters behind Lang\u2019s career night<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15304,"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-15303","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\/15303","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=15303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20719,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15303\/revisions\/20719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15303"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}