{"id":23557,"date":"2025-02-13T19:42:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T02:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-beats-back-telluride-58-45\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:38:37","slug":"dove-creek-beats-back-telluride-58-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-beats-back-telluride-58-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek beats back Telluride 58-45"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek head coach Teresa Martin strategizes with seniors Liam Hassell (3) and Sheldon Gardner (15) during the Bulldogs' 58-45 home win Tuesday, Feb. 11, over Telluride. Joel Priest\/Special to Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Watching his teammates work the ball around the perimeter in the waning seconds Feb. 11, Liam Hassell looked surprised to receive the rock barely 4 feet from the hoop.<\/p>\n

Shouts came from several directions for him to shoot \u2013 and not because the Bulldogs needed a buzzer-beater. But Hassell had a good view of The Dawg House\u2019s main scoreboard, showing 2A Dove Creek well ahead of visiting 3A Telluride but himself trailing fellow senior Sheldon Gardner by one point for the game high.<\/p>\n

Almost apologetically, Hassell couldn\u2019t let the chance to razz his teammate pass, and shot the uncontested layup \u2013 upping his final count to 16 points while Gardner finished with 15 (each made three three-pointers) \u2013 to cap a 58-45 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaring more about a team win than what they can do individually \u2013 that\u2019s where growth really happens,\u201d said DCHS head coach Teresa Martin, not exactly overjoyed by the final basket but plenty pleased with how Hassell, Gardner and the rest of her team had come together when they most needed to. \u201cAnd what they\u2019re doing as a team, it\u2019s just so awesome to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Liam Hassell rises above Telluride's Henry Raible (5) for a shot near the basket during the Bulldogs' 58-45 home win Tuesday, Feb. 11. Joel Priest\/Special to Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Powerful in the paint, junior Trevan Ivie made three of six free throws and totaled 13 points plus as many rebounds. Junior point guard Nicholas Aragon \u2013 who, like Hassell (10 rebounds), booked six points during the opening eight minutes as DCHS broke out to a 10-0 lead in 5:49, and closed out the first quarter up 14-7 \u2013 ended up with two treys and 11 points. Junior Josh Kibel (3-4 FT) chipped in three points as the Bulldogs rose to 14-5 overall and 8-0 in 3A\/2A\/1A San Juan Basin League play.<\/p>\n

And despite two major Miner surges, the \u2019Dogs never trailed and led 25-20 at halftime and 40-28 beginning the fourth and final frame. Hot long-range shooting from senior guard Sam Herman and junior guard Alex Nieto cut what had grown to a 48-33 deficit down to 48-39, but Telluride (7-12, 4-6 SJBL) got no closer down the stretch than 49-41 with 2:29 remaining in regulation, via two FTs by junior forward Langston Silbergeld.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of just started getting confidence in our shots, and we started hitting them,\u201d said Herman, whose three second-quarter treys were the primary reason the Bulldogs\u2019 advantage at intermission wasn\u2019t much, much greater.<\/p>\n

Herman finished with four threes and 12 points \u2013 as did junior Danny Romo, who sank two threes. Nieto (2 3-PT) ended up with nine points, as did Silbergeld (3-6 FT), and junior Miguel \u2018Mike\u2019 Sanchez drained one trey for his three points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys buckled down and kept playing good D \u2026 never stopped hustling. That\u2019s what counts,\u201d Martin said. \u201cWe had some ups and downs right around Christmastime, that kind of rolled into the new year \u2026 but we got it figured out as a team, and I\u2019m so proud of these guys and the way they\u2019ve been growing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up next, Dove Creek will host 2A Dolores (6-13, 3-6 SJBL) on Saturday, Feb. 15, then 2A Mancos on the 18th.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had quite a few offensive boards, and that was great to see; tonight was probably one of our best (rebounding efforts) \u2026 that we\u2019ve had all season,\u201d said Martin. \u201cAnd honestly I just want to keep seeing this team basketball, you know? Play as a team, grow as a team, and show it out on the floor. There\u2019s always little improvements, you know \u2013 do more of this or more of that \u2013 but as long as they show up and play like they did tonight \u2026 that\u2019s what\u2019s going to make the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs winning streak hits 10 games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,39,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23557","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=23557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78176,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23557\/revisions\/78176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23557"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}