{"id":29047,"date":"2024-02-25T06:18:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hartsoes-buzzer-beater-helps-montezuma-cortez-take-down-ignacio\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:47:32","slug":"hartsoes-buzzer-beater-helps-montezuma-cortez-take-down-ignacio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hartsoes-buzzer-beater-helps-montezuma-cortez-take-down-ignacio\/","title":{"rendered":"Hartsoe\u2019s buzzer-beater helps Montezuma-Cortez take down Ignacio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=2eab35d7-50c6-5ae4-b512-2ee2a1a780a5&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1271\" alt=\"\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>BAYFIELD \u2013 It was the best of times on Saturday night \u2013 a drastic reversal from the night before, where the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers suffered the worst of times.<\/p>\n<p>Two buzzer-beaters in a span of 24 hours, and the Panthers tasted both the ecstasy of victory and the heartache of defeat at the end of a ball ripping the cords as the final horn sounded.<\/p>\n<p>In its third meeting with Ignacio in two weeks, Montezuma-Cortez (8-13, 4-6 in 4A\/3A Intermountain League play) rallied from 10 down in the second half, knotting up the game at 55, and had the ball at midcourt with just two seconds remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Freshman Asher Bennett lobbed in the pass to sophomore Trace Hartsoe, who spun to his left from nearly 30 feet from the hoop and heaved a shot toward the rim as the horn sounded \u2013 right as the ball splashed in.<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers bench mobbed Hartsoe in a 58-55 win, earning Montezuma-Cortez third place in the 3A IML-Southern Peaks district tournament. The Panthers are also guaranteed a spot in the 3A state tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The win came as a fitting remedy for the bitter taste of their 70-68 Friday night defeat to Crested Butte, a game in which the Panthers suffered the heavy feeling of watching the Titans celebrate a buzzer beater of their own that relegated the Panthers to the consolation bracket.<\/p>\n<p>For the second straight encounter with Ignacio, Montezuma-Cortez played catch-up for the majority of the contest, but flipped the switch in the second half to overcome a double-figure deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Ignacio (8-14, 2-8 in league play) built a 25-17 lead in the first half behind hot 3-point shooting \u2013 seven in the opening 16 minutes \u2013 while the Panthers fell cold.<\/p>\n<p>However, for the second time in two days, coach Mike Hall\u2019s Panthers second half adjustments turned the game on its head, as junior Caidin Leonard turned in a torrid second half, scoring 18 of his game-high 21 points in the rally that started late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Four Leonard triples brought the Panthers back within a single-score game, and sophomore Wyatt Oliver drove the baseline to tie the game at 55 with under a minute in regulation.<\/p>\n<p>Ignacio\u2019s Ambrose Valdez, Trace Crane and Phillip Quintana each scored 11 points, as the Bobcats held a 36-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Panther offense caught fire with Leonard, Oliver, and freshman Trey Hall accounting for 20 points in the final frame, setting up the dramatic finish and Hartsoe\u2019s memorable shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Panthers bounce back after Crested Butte derailed M-CHS rally at final horn on Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,642,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29047","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=29047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80615,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29047\/revisions\/80615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29047"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}