{"id":15420,"date":"2025-12-03T23:17:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-basketball-aces-first-exam-of-the-season\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:48:03","slug":"montezuma-cortez-basketball-aces-first-exam-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-basketball-aces-first-exam-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez basketball aces first exam of the season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School sophomore Ah-dae Lang drives past an Aztec defender during the Panthers\u2019 season-opening win Tuesday at The Jungle. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 Fans who packed The Jungle on Tuesday night to watch their hometown Panthers tip off the hoops season left buzzing from Montezuma-Cortez High School\u2019s electrifying performance. As the orange-and-black faithful exited smiling on opening night, one question lingered:<\/p>\n

How high is this team\u2019s ceiling?<\/p>\n

M-CHS opened its ambitious season with a commanding 86-26 win over visiting Aztec, showcasing not only returning talent but also head coach Mike Hall\u2019s deep bench.<\/p>\n

The Panthers remain a \u201cyoung team,\u201d with only three seniors on the roster and a large part of the rotation coming from the Class of \u201927. Among that junior talent, Trey Hall anchors the offense and can score from anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Trey Hall splits two Aztec defenders during the Panthers\u2019 season-opening win Tuesday at The Jungle. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

His alley-oop dunk on the game\u2019s opening possession set the tone for a 21-0 run to start the game, part of a 41-9 first-quarter explosion that erased any hope the Tigers (0-4) had for their first win.<\/p>\n

The real impression came after the first-quarter blitz. Every time Hall brought in a reinforcement, the \u201cnext man up\u201d injected fresh energy.<\/p>\n

Nine Panthers scored, four in double figures. Hall and sophomore Ah-dae Lang shared game-high honors with 18 points apiece, and M-CHS\u2019s defensive pressure produced countless steals in half- and full-court presses.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we\u2019re able to get going, we\u2019re hard to stop,\u201d said Hall after the win. \u201cWe played together all summer, and we were able to build a lot of trust in one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Senior Trace Hartsoe combined well with the other Panther posts for an interior passing clinic that yielded layup after layup. Junior Kaleb Schmitt posted a career-high 11 points to complement Hartsoe\u2019s dozen, while sophomore Justin Bane cleaned up misses for eight points in his varsity debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how our guys hustle. They bring a lot of energy to the court,\u201d added Hall, praising the bench\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Royce Watts tallied five points and several pinpoint assists while running the point.<\/p>\n

Hall, the team\u2019s returning leader in scoring, rebounding and steals, spent the offseason developing another part of his game. \u201cI\u2019ve been working on my passing and how I see the court,\u201d said the junior. \u201cMy focus is to get my teammates in the best spots to get good looks at the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 86 points matched the program\u2019s highest output since February 2022 in a win against Alamosa, an early warning sign that opposing defenses better be ready when M-CHS steps on the court.<\/p>\n

The Panthers know the road will get rockier in the coming weeks, with meetings against out-of-state challengers San Juan (home, Dec. 9) and Rehoboth Christian (road, Dec. 12) before their first Colorado matchup in Grand Junction for three contests Dec. 18-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers demonstrate scoring balance, tenacious defense in home opener<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15421,"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-15420","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\/15420","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=15420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20726,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15420\/revisions\/20726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15420"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}