{"id":35594,"date":"2023-02-23T22:15:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T05:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-cortez-girls-thrill-crowd-during-play-in\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:25:39","slug":"bayfield-cortez-girls-thrill-crowd-during-play-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-cortez-girls-thrill-crowd-during-play-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield, Cortez girls thrill crowd during play-in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bayfield
Bayfield senior Abria Thayer pulls in a rebound away from Montezuma-Cortez's Kayce Tom during 3A IML District Tournament play-in action Tuesday at M-CHS. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 Wary of a left leg already wrapped from thigh to calf, Montezuma-Cortez junior Savannah Haselroth\u2019s luck went from tough to worse when she looked to have sprained her left knee after being fouled on a baseline drive with 5.4 seconds left in the first quarter of the 3A Intermountain League Girls\u2019 District Tournament play-in game Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Knowing the Panthers \u2013 or visiting Bayfield \u2013 would have to next face powerhouse Centauri on Thursday night in the tourney\u2019s semifinals, watching Haselroth require help to limp to the trainer\u2019s table was a sight Brad Wright wished he could un-see. What he saw after that, however, left him upbeat about M-CHS\u2019 chances to at least give the Falcons a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know; you\u2019ve still got to play the game,\u201d he said after M-CHS survived BHS at home, 43-32. \u201cBut we\u2019re very positive. Centauri\u2019s going to be a beast \u2013 they\u2019ve really routed us both times we\u2019ve played them \u2013 so we\u2019re going to go (to La Jara) and try to \u2026 make a good run. Just try to get our feet on the ground for Saturday, more or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Results from Thursday\u2019s action between Montezuma-Cortez (5-14 overall) and No. 3-ranked CHS (17-2) were unavailable at press time, as were figures from Ignacio (10-9) versus Crested Butte (13-6). The Titans were brought in from the 3A\/2A Southern Peaks for postseason play as part of CHSAA\u2019s altered basketball alignments this winter.<\/p>\n

Saturday will feature the third-place game at 11 a.m. and the IML championship at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez junior Cyriah Begay leaps past Bayfield's Genesis Barrera for a shot during 3A IML District Tournament play-in action Tuesday at M-CHS. Begay scored six points in the Panthers' 43-32 win. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
How it went down<\/div>\n

Just 29.6 ticks before her unplanned exit, Haselroth hit a 3-pointer to increase the Panthers\u2019 fast-growing lead on Bayfield (5-15 overall) to 13-2. After being aided to the sideline, junior reserve Trenity Tillahash made one of two free throws in her stead. However, the Wolverines gained a vital confidence boost when junior Michelle Kirk hustled to net a buzzer-beating two-pointer at the other end.<\/p>\n

Trailing 14-4 as the second quarter began, BHS began a comeback for the books. Fueled by two of junior Genesis Barrera\u2019s three triples, Bayfield outscored M-CHS 12-2 in 6:37 worth of game time and pulled even when Barrera landed a corner bomb tying the contest at 16-16. Senior Alaysia Kremer put the visitors up 17-16 with 0:42.8 left via a free throw, then ended the half by rebounding a missed free throw and taking it the length of the court for a breakaway layup.<\/p>\n

Leading 19-16 after outscoring Montezuma-Cortez 15-2 in the second stanza, the Wolverines knew the Panthers would respond to defend their house. It didn\u2019t take long for M-CHS to ramp up the pressure. Sophomore Taylor Whited and junior Cyriah Begay started the third quarter striking from inside and outside the three-point arc.<\/p>\n

Barrera (18 points) made what ended up being her final three, but Montezuma-Cortez junior Markylla Jones regained the home team a 23-22 lead with 5:17 left. Not long after Kremer (7 points) countered with a deuce, Ogo dropped in back-to-back 2-pointers \u2013 swelling M-CHS\u2019 lead to 32-24, and pressing BHS head coach Lauren Moran into using a timeout with 1:07 to go.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez sophomore Kalea Ogo angles underneath Bayfield's Madison Mead for a close-range shot during 3A IML District Tournament play-in action Tuesday at M-CHS. Ogo scored eight points in the Panthers' 43-32 win. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cTook a little bit for us to get into our stride,\u201d Wright said. \u201cSavannah\u2019s our leading scorer and also leads in blocks and assists; when a girl like that goes down \u2026. We (coaches) were really proud of them all for stepping up the way they did. We just went to a more \u2018specific\u2019 offense, looking for mismatches and areas we could exploit a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

No further damage was done, but BHS sophomore Renae Foutz (2 points) went into the fourth quarter owning four personal fouls and eventually picked up her disqualifying fifth with 3:07 still remaining. Two Barrera free throws pulled Bayfield within five points, 36-31, but the Panthers outscored the Wolverines 7-1 the rest of the way to end Bayfield\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

Kirk totaled five points in defeat. Jones paced M-CHS with nine points, while Ogo and Whited each registered eight. Held to just one three-ball, Begay ended up with six points. Tom found ways to operate inside for five. Lone senior Amiyah Ogo converted an and-1 play for her three points, which put Montezuma-Cortez up 9-2 in the first.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really proud of the progress we made this year, and very optimistic that improvement is going to continue and just accelerate in the future with the young kids we have coming up,\u201d Moran said. \u201cOverall, we\u2019re definitely disappointed that we didn\u2019t win. I think we were capable, but we\u2019re still proud of their effort, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHats off to Bayfield,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI\u2019m really impressed with what Moran has done with them, to bring them to where they are. And I\u2019m glad they brought a good game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez sophomore Taylor Whited, left, retracts the ball to deny Bayfield's Genesis Barrera a steal during 3A IML District Tournament play-in action Tuesday at M-CHS. The Panthers won 43-32. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bayfield
Bayfield senior Alaysia Kremer finds room between two Montezuma-Cortez defenders to shoot during 3A IML District Tournament play-in action Tuesday at M-CHS. Kremer scored seven points in a 43-32 loss. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers survive Wolverines 43-32<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,1871],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-bayfield-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35594","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=35594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83031,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35594\/revisions\/83031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35594"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}