{"id":35696,"date":"2023-02-18T15:30:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T22:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-nip-bobcats-on-senior-night-34-32\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:26:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:26:28","slug":"panthers-nip-bobcats-on-senior-night-34-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-nip-bobcats-on-senior-night-34-32\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers nip Bobcats on Senior Night, 34-32"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s
Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Austin Wood, right, battles Ignacio\u2019s Eppie Quintana for a rebound during IML action Thursday at M-CHS. Wood was held scoreless on Senior Night, but the Panthers pulled out a 34-32 win. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As dramatic as the finish Thursday inside raucous Montezuma-Cortez High School Gymnasium ended up being, both basketball teams\u2019 bosses seemed amazed the final score turned out being so low.<\/p>\n

Even M-CHS head coach Michael Hall, his side prevailing 34-32 after two Isaak Lewis free throws with 0:03 left in the fourth quarter all but clinched victory \u2013 even though Ignacio\u2019s Devante Montoya managed to rebound a teammate\u2019s missed desperation 3-pointer and net a buzzer-beating deuce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting good looks, and our defense is always pretty decent. We\u2019ve just got to score the ball,\u201d Hall said. \u201cThat\u2019s never been an issue for us, but in the first half I think we missed 14 layups; we\u2019ve got to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIgnacio \u2026 they\u2019re a good team; I don\u2019t want to take anything away from coach Valdez\u2019s boys \u2013 they played us hard. And I hate playing against him; he\u2019s such a good coach, zones us up (defensively) and hurts us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s
Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Miles Frost angles for a shot away from Ignacio\u2019s Gabe Cox during IML action Thursday at M-CHS. Frost scored a game-high 12 points in a 34-32 win. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cDefense has saved our butt all year,\u201d IHS skipper Chris Valdez said. \u201cAnd our problem is, we can\u2019t put offense with it sometimes; our defense holds us in the game, and when we have a decent offensive effort we win. When we don\u2019t, we lose. And that was tonight; when our offense \u2026 couldn\u2019t hit shots, that cost us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Able to hold four of Hall\u2019s special Senior Night starting five scoreless, the Bobcats began the second half the same way they\u2019d begun the first \u2013 with an 8-2 run increasing a 16-13 halftime lead to 24-15 midway through the third quarter. But as Panther junior post Miles Frost\u2019s buzzer-beating put-back baskets concluding the first and second quarters had already indicated, nothing would be over until it officially was.<\/p>\n

Beginning with the first of sophomore guard Caidin Leonard\u2019s two clutch 3-pointers and ending with the second, M-CHS rallied back to 24-23 with 2:15 still to play in the third. Neither squad gained or lost any more ground as time expired \u2013 with Bobcat senior guard Eppie Quintana\u2019s last-ditch three-point try narrowly missing \u2013 and the 3A\/4A Intermountain League action accelerated into the final eight-minute frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental toughness. That\u2019s all it\u2019s about, you know?\u201d Frost said. \u201cYou can\u2019t lose yourself; you\u2019ve got to keep your composure. This was what you\u2019d expect to come out for; you\u2019ve got to be ready for everything that comes your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Montezuma-Cortez (7-12 overall, 3-7 IML) certainly appeared to be. Lewis made a go-ahead trey with 6:19 to go, and Leonard then put the Panthers up 28-24 by rebounding and cleaning up sophomore Tay Wheat\u2019s missed breakaway layup.<\/p>\n

Contained effectively all game, junior center\/forward Gabe Cox responded for Ignacio (5-14, 1-9) with a strong take to the hoop, but Leonard (10 points) countered with another layup. Wheat then crashed through a defender for a hard-earned two points, upping M-CHS\u2019 lead to 32-26 with 4:22 remaining.<\/p>\n

Cox (10 points) managed another basket despite the Panthers milking the clock, and junior Phillip Quintana (2 points) parlayed a Montoya steal into a basket at the other end, bringing the \u2019Cats back to 32-30 with 1:37 left. And that\u2019s when things got nerve-wracking.<\/p>\n

Put in the 1-and-1 with 53.1 ticks remaining, M-CHS couldn\u2019t capitalize. Gabe Crowley, one of M-CHS\u2019 five saluted seniors, twice missed the front end of the bonus, and Leonard did so with 25.6 to go. IHS then attempted to tie via a two-point shot by freshman Ambrose Valdez, but it was off-target and the rebound deflected off Phillip Quintana\u2019s hand and out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Poised to either dribble out the still-remaining 12.3 seconds, or get sent again to the foul line, the Panthers inexplicably gave the Bobcats one last realistic chance to at least send the contest into overtime when senior Austin Wood lost control of the rock near Ignacio\u2019s bench. Fortunate that Montoya (4 points) was not given his fifth personal foul on the play, IHS inbounded with 9.6 to go, but Eppie Quintana couldn\u2019t get a shot up through defenders Lewis and Crowley.<\/p>\n

Forced to foul, he then did so \u2013 picking up his own disqualifying fifth and exiting with 10 points to his name.<\/p>\n

Lewis then stepped to the charity stripe, did what needed doing most, and 3.7 ticks later, irrespective of Montoya\u2019s heads-up cleanup, the home fans\u2019 celebration went into overdrive. Likely securing a spot in the upcoming IML District Tournament, M-CHS avoided a tiebreaker scenario with Ignacio (still plus-3 offensively in going 1-1 against the Panthers) in the league standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeels really good,\u201d said Frost, who came in off Hall\u2019s bench \u2013 as did Leonard \u2013 to score a game-high 12 points, despite playing with a braced left thumb and deeply-bruised middle knuckle on his right hand. \u201cThe seniors, it\u2019s their last year, and I\u2019ve been playing with them since I was little. So I\u2019ve wanted to give them everything I can this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS\u2019 only senior to score in the battle, Lewis totaled six points, as did Wheat.<\/p>\n

In defeat, Bobcat senior forward\/center Dylan McCaw provided IHS a third-quarter spark and finished with six points.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe absolutely did,\u201d Chris Valdez said. \u201cWhen we couldn\u2019t get the ball to Cox, we went to Dylan and Dylan was able to do some stuff \u2026 hit some nice shots. Our kids played hard and I\u2019m proud of them. We\u2019ll move forward from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2019Cats are expected to next see action in the league tournament\u2019s play-in phase on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Bayfield boys 37, Alamosa 66<\/div>\n

Able to stay relatively close to 4A No. 4 AHS through one quarter on Thursday, BHS struggled more in the second and went into halftime trailing 36-14, en route to a 66-37 road loss concluding regular-season play.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Lincoln Williams paced the Wolverines (8-11, 2-8 IML) with nine points, including a trey, and senior Max Meyers scored seven. Seniors Jackson Queen and Caden Wood each booked six points, and senior Lance Mazur five as the visitors managed to win the fourth quarter 10-3.<\/p>\n

For the league-champion Mean Moose (19-3, 9-1), junior Brant Jackson went off for 18 points and senior Luke Christensen logged 16.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio\u2019s
Ignacio\u2019s Dylan McCaw leans back for a jumper over Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Isaak Lewis during IML action Thursday at M-CHS. McCaw scored six points in a tight 34-32 road loss. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frost, Leonard boost M-CHS off bench<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,1871,846,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696","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=35696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83079,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696\/revisions\/83079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35696"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}