{"id":23442,"date":"2025-02-21T19:48:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T02:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-boys-show-senior-night-superiority\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:36:28","slug":"montezuma-cortez-boys-show-senior-night-superiority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-boys-show-senior-night-superiority\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez boys show Senior Night superiority"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Ridge Hathale leans into a route around Ignacio's Charley Pargin (33) during action Feb. 18, inside M-CHS Gymnasium. The Panthers defeated the Bobcats 64-50. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)\n<\/p>\n

Having already displayed a versatile offensive game throughout the first half, Ignacio senior Charley Pargin had the basketball in his hands as the second quarter neared its end Tuesday night, Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

Often utilizing pump fakes or reverse pivots to elude defenders, he opted not to shoot this time. Instead, Pargin caught Montezuma-Cortez slightly out of position and passed to sophomore Cayson Burcham, who drilled a straight-on 3-pointer, sending the teams into halftime with the visiting Bobcats leading 29-28 in a thrilling 3A\/4A Intermountain League battle before a standing-room-only crowd at M-CHS Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Scoreless up to that moment, Burcham\u2019s shot wasn\u2019t a fluke. Assisted by junior Sonny Flores, junior Stoney White Thunder had ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer, stealing a 17-15 lead for Ignacio. Earlier in the quarter, senior Lincoln Gillespie nailed a 3-pointer to put Ignacio up 5-4, and junior Trace Crane later sank one for a 14-12 advantage with 2:11 remaining.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez sophomore Trey Hall (3) flies past Ignacio's Cayson Burcham (10) for a two-point take Tuesday night, February 18, inside M-CHS Gymnasium. Hall's 18 points paced all players.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Caidin Leonard confuses Ignacio's D.J. Hendren with a crossover dribble Feb. 18, inside M-CHS Gymnasium. Leonard logged 14 points.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Tay Wheat (4) prepares to release a scoop shot while floating past Ignacio's Lincoln Gillespie and Ambrose Valdez (22) during action Feb. 18 inside M-CHS Gymnasium. Wheat contributed 10 points. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)\n<\/p>

After Ignacio erased a 26-20 deficit \u2013 produced by M-CHS sophomore guard Trey Hall converting a three-point play after Crane fouled him on a successful drive to the hoop \u2013 the Panthers knew it would take something special to subdue the Bobcats.<\/p>\n

M-CHS guard Caidin Leonard, honored on Senior Night along with guard Tay Wheat and forward\/center Ridge Hathale, opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer. Pargin quickly answered with a putback basket, tying the score at 31. He soon added another bucket, but Montezuma-Cortez extended a 37-33 lead with back-to-back scoring lobs \u2013 one from Leonard, one from sophomore forward Asher Bennetts \u2013 to the high-flying Hall.<\/p>\n

Junior guard Trace Hartsoe had a chance to push the lead to 10, but instead of finishing a breakaway himself, he dropped the ball to a trailing Hall, who made no mistake. Having missed much of the Panthers\u2019 previous game at Ignacio due to injury, Hall recognized the moment\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to see my teammates having confidence like that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever I\u2019m not hot and just don\u2019t seem to be shooting well, I need to find my teammates. But tonight, I was hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrey, he\u2019s all-around; he can score, play good defense, and he\u2019s getting really good at protecting the rim and rebounding,\u201d M-CHS head coach Michael Hall said. \u201cBetween him and Tay, and if Caidin knocks down a couple of threes \u2026 it\u2019s just that spark, and our boys feed off that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers continued their dominant third quarter. Hartsoe contributed four points, junior Jaris McDonald came off the bench to add two, and Leonard capped it with his third and fourth 3-pointers of the night, giving Montezuma-Cortez a commanding 53-33 lead after a 25-4 run in the quarter.<\/p>\n

But Ignacio refused to go quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of my boys; they busted their butts, had the best attitude and the best effort,\u201d IHS head coach Trae Seibel said. \u201cWe\u2019re the smallest school in this league, and we\u2019re hanging with every team that\u2019s way bigger than us. Our boys are battling, and today the third quarter just got away from us. But if we lock up a little better\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bobcats tightened their defense in the final frame and closed the gap to 57-45 with 4:07 left via a Burcham three-point play. Ignacio outscored M-CHS 12-4 in the quarter, but the Panthers managed the clock and added key baskets to keep the Bobcats at bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what Senior Night is about, right? You hope you can put yourself in that position, and we were able to,\u201d Michael Hall said, reflecting on his seniors\u2019 exits to roaring applause. \u201cRidge, Caidin, and Tay, they built this. After COVID, things were kind of out of whack, and they built the program back up. Now we\u2019re packing the stands again and winning games. Those boys deserve a lot of credit; that\u2019s why I did their curtain calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never played in a game like that, with so many people standing around because there were no seats left,\u201d said Trey Hall, who finished with a game-high 18 points. \u201cIt was awesome to see my teammates have Senior Night to themselves \u2013 and it was easier to score, for some reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard scored 14 points, Hartsoe had 11, and Wheat added 10 for Montezuma-Cortez (16-5 overall, 8-2 IML). Freshman Ah-dae Lang led the Panthers reserves with five points. Pargin finished with 15 for Ignacio (9-11, 2-7), while Crane and D.J. Hendren scored seven each. Burcham had six points, and Gillespie \u2013 who earned a spot start in place of Hendren \u2013 totaled five.<\/p>\n

M-CHS will visit Monte Vista (10-10, 3-7) on Friday night, Feb. 21, before a day off Saturday. Ignacio will host Alamosa (3-17, 1-8) on Feb. 21 and Monte Vista the following evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers down Ignacio 64-50<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,28,846,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442","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=23442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78122,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442\/revisions\/78122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23442"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}