{"id":29496,"date":"2024-01-27T22:55:42","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T05:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-edges-past-mancos-in-hoops-thriller\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:57:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:57:56","slug":"dove-creek-edges-past-mancos-in-hoops-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-edges-past-mancos-in-hoops-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek edges past Mancos in hoops thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Quincy Montoya drives against Dove Creek's Taylor Hampton in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t a soul inside the Bluejay Fieldhouse who wasn\u2019t aware of the implications of the fever pitched clash between Mancos and Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

As the San Juan Basin League\u2019s two remaining unbeaten teams squared off with a league title hanging in the balance, the decibel level rose with each successive run.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the final run proved to be decisive, as Dove Creek rallied from a seven-point fourth quarter deficit and scored the game\u2019s final 17 points in a 43-33 victory, giving the Bulldogs a clear path to their fourth consecutive San Juan Basin League crown.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos sophomore Aysia Mathews goes baseline against Dove Creek senior Halee Beanland in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Kalie Gatlin goes to the hoop against Mancos sophomore Claire Goodwin in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bulldog
Bulldog junior Ralynn Hickman drives the basketball against Mancos senior Quincy Montoya in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mancos
Mancos sophomore Claire Goodwin looks to get past Dove Creek freshman Jessica Alexander in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The JournalBen Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Kylie Gatlin attacks against Mancos sophomore Aysia Mathews in a pivotal San Juan Basin League matchup Friday at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In a game filled with physical play and fouls aplenty, the Bulldogs (10-2, 3-0 2A\/1A SJBL) kept their cool down the stretch, leaning on the composed play of their upperclassmen, and the fourth quarter domination of senior Kylie Gatlin. She posted 11 of her game-high 21 in the 17-0 final flourish, reentering the game early in the fourth quarter after picking up her fourth foul late in the third.<\/p>\n

Mancos (8-3, 2-1 2A\/1A SJBL) used her absence as a springboard to increase their 28-26 lead, when Bluejays senior Quincy Montoya drained a 3-pointer \u2013 her final bucket on a 15-point night \u2013 to run the lead to 33-26 in favor of the home team.<\/p>\n

With Bluejay Fieldhouse in rapture, Dove Creek seventh-year head coach Julie Kibel called for time, brought her captain back to the floor, and changed the game one final time. A string of buckets in the paint spurred the Gatlin-led charge, shortly after the senior\u2019s game-tying triple knotted the contest at 33 midway through the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has the ability to go when she needs to go \u2013 she thrives on the competition. It\u2019s genuine. When she went back into the game, she was ready to go take over,\u201d said Kibel.<\/p>\n

After testing one another with early body blows in the opening two quarters, resulting in a Dove Creek lead of 16-12 at halftime, the game\u2019s tenor shifted in a testy third quarter full of fouls. A pair of Mancos threes from sophomore Claire Goodwin seized the momentum for the home team, while Montoya went to the line and drained five of six tries to put the Jays on the front foot.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek\u2019s offense, which struggled with tenacious interior defense from Mancos\u2019 Teya Yeomans, got a couple of key buckets from senior Kalie Gatlin, who scored five of her seven points in the third period, along with layups from junior Ralynn Hickman and sophomore Taylor Hampton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love games like this, physical and intense,\u201d Hickman said after the game. \u201cBasketball is such a mental game, and in practice we really focus on staying calm and push the ball when we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos struggled to breakdown the Dove Creek zone, with sophomore Hadley Hatfield contributing to a strong night for the Bulldog defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the timeout (that started the 17-0 run), we really emphasized playing as a team, and also made sure that we were boxing out and taking care of the ball,\u201d said Hickman.<\/p>\n

At the night\u2019s end, the Bulldogs could celebrate an eighth consecutive win in their rivalry series against Mancos, thanks to Hickman\u2019s six, Hampton\u2019s four, and senior Halee Beanland\u2019s three points. Goodwin scored 16 to lead the Bluejays.<\/p>\n

\u201cKalie and Kylie see the floor so well,\u201d said Hickman of the twin sisters at the epicenter of another successful Bulldog season. \u201cThey let us know where we need to be, and I hope that\u2019ll be something I\u2019m able to continue to do with the younger girls after they (the Gatlin twins) graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two teams meet again on Tuesday, Jan. 30 in Dove Creek for a highly anticipated rematch, albeit the second edition won\u2019t alter the league standings. From there, Mancos begins another three-game home stand with matchups against Nucla (Feb. 1), Telluride (Feb. 3), and Pagosa Springs (Feb. 6) at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Dove Creek, meanwhile, preps for IML competition a visit to former SJBL foe Ignacio on Feb. 6 followed a day later with a home contest against Montezuma-Cortez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs take top spot in San Juan Basin standings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[39,28,37,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29496","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=29496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80769,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29496\/revisions\/80769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29496"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}