{"id":36057,"date":"2023-01-28T19:39:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T02:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-edges-mancos-in-ot-thriller\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:29:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:29:01","slug":"dove-creek-edges-mancos-in-ot-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-edges-mancos-in-ot-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek edges Mancos in OT thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek junior Kade Hankins drives to the rim against Dolores senior Josh Ricca in a game at Dove Creek High School on Saturday.<\/span>Ben Bradley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Netflix has nothing on Friday night hoops in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

With all the plot twists of your favorite streaming service drama, played out in front of a live audience, every Mancos-Dove Creek athletic encounter has become must-see entertainment.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs and Bluejays electrified a packed house Friday in Dove Creek, swinging the raucous cheers from one end of the gymnasium to the other with each clutch possession.<\/p>\n

In the end, 32 minutes wasn\u2019t enough to separate the league\u2019s two remaining unbeatens, as Dove Creek produced one more big play than Mancos in the overtime period to carry the Bulldogs to victory, 65-59.<\/p>\n

The contest \u2013 the first win for Dove Creek (11-2, 4-0 2A\/1A SJBL) over Mancos in boys basketball since any of the players on the floor have been alive \u2013 lived up to the billing as a high-intensity, physical battle of two teams that had separated themselves from the San Juan Basin League field at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

With Dove Creek senior standout Kade Hankins on the bench for the overtime session, having fouled out with a minute left in regulation, the Bulldogs produced big baskets from a variety of sources to help the Bulldogs pull out the win, shortly after they had seen a six-point fourth quarter lead evaporate in the final moments of regulation.<\/p>\n

Senior Kendall Gardner scored an and-one bucket in the extra period, while classmate Cole Taber came up with a huge basket of his own \u2013 and the Bulldogs shot well from the free throw line in the late stages to collect the win.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos junior Brian Veach loses Telluride's Will Metheny behind a Kaiden Wyatt screen and drives into the paint in this file photo. Friday, Veach capped a comeback to help force an overtime period against Dove Creek. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos junior Brian Veach drilled a three-pointer in the final 30 seconds of regulation to cap the comeback for Mancos from down 50-44 with less than 70 seconds remaining, tying the contest at 51 and forcing overtime. Veach\u2019s brilliant second half \u2013 20 of his game-high 26 points came in second half or overtime \u2013 kept the Jays in step with Dove Creek, as the volume and heart rates inside the \u201cDawg House\u201d escalated in the waning minutes.<\/p>\n

Right from the opening jump, the tone was set \u2013 Mancos (8-5, 3-1 2A\/1A SJBL) tried to blanket Hankins, who came in averaging 20 points per outing. For a half, the strategy worked like a charm, the Dove Creek offense struggled to find a rhythm \u2013 trailing 7-4 after the opening eight minutes.<\/p>\n

Responding in kind, however, Dove Creek\u2019s zone defense collapsed on Mancos\u2019 basket attacks, clogging the lane and turning the game into a turnover-fest.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs eked out a 17-16 lead at the break, with Hankins held to seven points, while the Jays kept looking to assert their post presence through sophomore Kaiden Wyatt. The adept Wyatt started to find his touch late in the first half, scoring six of his 14 points before the break.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, out of the locker room, both teams started to find their offense, with Mancos junior Chris Medina fervently attacking the rim, and earning plenty of free throws as a result. His attacking flair helped him to 13 points, seven of which came from the charity stripe in a third-quarter surge for the visitors.<\/p>\n

For each Mancos bucket, however, Dove Creek found the answer, as Hankins came to life in the second half \u2013 also utilizing the free throw line as an ally in a back-and-forth stanza. Mancos briefly took a four-point lead on a bucket from Wyatt, but Dove Creek answered with the final eight points of the quarter to take a 36-32 lead to the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked at halftime about how we needed to move the ball more,\u201d said Kade Hankins of his team\u2019s second half production, \u201cand that opened up some of the shorter jumpers that started to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

D.C. senior Tanner Williams \u2013 quiet through the first three quarters \u2013 came to life in the fourth, providing a pair of big baskets to help Dove Creek expand the lead.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs couldn\u2019t close the game out, though, as Mancos kept the pedal down to drive to the basket and find pivotal field goals that kept head coach Dusty Veach\u2019s squad within arm\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

After Hankins scored on a pair of svelte drives to the basket, beating the Bluejays down the court, D.C. built a six-point edge with less than two minutes to go.<\/p>\n

However, Hankins picked up his fifth foul moments later, and the whole tenor of the gymnasium shifted. Mancos capitalized, scoring on consecutive possessions to pull within one score, and after collecting a missed free throw rebound with 30 seconds left, the Bluejays blitzed to the frontcourt, setting up Veach with a right-wing 3-pointer to knot the game at 51.<\/p>\n

With all the momentum on the Bluejay sideline after stopping Dove Creek on their final chance in regulation, it looked like the visitors would carry their scoring prowess into overtime.<\/p>\n

However, Williams drilled a three on the opening sequence of the overtime. Mancos answered with baskets of their own, including freshman Cory Carver\u2019s lone basket \u2013 a triple with a minute remaining to give Mancos their first lead since the third quarter, 59-58.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays wouldn\u2019t score again.<\/p>\n

A clutch steal by Dove Creek\u2019s Gage Buffington as Mancos was trying to milk the clock set up the Bulldog revival. The junior, along with sophomore Sheldon Gardner, canned a series of free throws, helping Dove Creek reclaim the lead, before their defense stymied the final Mancos looks at the basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey executed perfectly,\u201d said Kade Hankins of his team\u2019s performance without him on the floor in overtime, \u201cthey knew they needed to take care of the ball, and they came up with some big plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be a battle,\u201d said Dove Creek head coach Aaron Hankins, \u201cI\u2019m so proud of them \u2013 they were upbeat the whole time, even when we fell behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veach led all scorers with 26 points, while Wyatt added 14 and Medina tallied 13 points for the Bluejays.<\/p>\n

Hankins scored 23 points, while Kendall Gardner finished with a dozen and Williams added 10 points for Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cKendall stepping up as a scoring threat has really helped our offense,\u201d said the D.C. head coach of his team\u2019s scoring balance \u2013 seven different players scored in the game, \u201cwe\u2019ve really improved with having more guys who we can rely on for scoring \u2013 and that\u2019s what we want to see as coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of guys come up big tonight,\u201d added Hankins, \u201cwe had guys from the bench stepping up and making plays \u2013 especially in overtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dove Creek will get set to face Bayfield on Wednesday, Feb. 1, before a big league contest against Ouray \u2013 with whom they have split their first two meetings \u2013 awaits on Friday at home. Their duel with the Trojans will be broadcast on local radio station 98.7 FM KRTZ and on krtzradio.com.<\/p>\n

Mancos, meanwhile, looks to shift their road fortunes, as they take on Ridgway on Saturday, before trips to Nucla on Thursday, Feb. 2 and Telluride two days later cap a busy week for the Jays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs claim league lead in dramatic game with clutch free throws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,39,28,37,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057","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=36057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83220,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057\/revisions\/83220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36057"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}