{"id":36315,"date":"2023-01-14T17:57:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T00:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-start-new-year-on-right-foot\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:30:48","slug":"bluejays-start-new-year-on-right-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-start-new-year-on-right-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluejays start new year on right foot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Right before the start of league play, the Mancos boys basketball team has sent a message to the rest of the San Juan Basin League \u2013 the Bluejays will be a major say in the league title chase over the next two months.<\/p>\n

With plenty of transitions in the offseason, including the graduation of plenty of the team\u2019s offensive output, first-year head coach Dusty Veach and the Jays have turned around a 2-4 start with three impressive wins, including a victory over Ignacio before the holidays, and more recently, a 40-37 win over 2A state preseason No. 1 Sanford.<\/p>\n

Also part of that run, Mancos dispatched Creede, 81-14, and it appears as if defense has become a major calling card for the 5-4 Jays.<\/p>\n

In their win over the Mustangs on Friday night, the Bluejays found themselves with a full battle on their hands right from the opening tip. The visitors built a 10-6 through the opening eight minutes, as Mustangs sophomore star Ben Sittler ignited the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Mancos responded in the second quarter, however, with junior Brian Veach attacking the basket for the Jays. Bluejay freshman Darren Daves added a pair of pair of 3-pointers to help Mancos surge in front, taking a 21-17 lead in to the locker room.<\/p>\n

Defense from both teams kept the contest tight in the third quarter, as the two squads combined for only five total field goals in the frame, and Mancos held a tenuous three point lead heading into the fourth.<\/p>\n

From there, a pair of the premier posts in the area, sophomore Kaiden Wyatt for Mancos and senior McCray Larsen for Sanford, produced a scoring flurry in the final stanza. Wyatt tallied six points of his game-high 11 points in the quarter, while Larsen answered with all nine of his points to keep the Mustangs in stride.<\/p>\n

Mancos junior Andrew Jaime scored all six of his points in the second half to provide a big boost for the Jays.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Bluejays\u2019 better evening at the free throw line, shooting 12-for-20 on the night from the charity stripe while the Mustangs struggled in a 6-for-18 performance, and the Bluejays crossed the finish line with their third straight win in the series against the Mustangs.<\/p>\n

League play gets underway for Veach\u2019s Bluejays on Saturday, Jan. 14 against Ouray, before a home meeting with Telluride on Jan. 20. After their contest with the Miners, Mancos hits the road for five straight contests in the SJBL gauntlet.<\/p>\n

Mancos girls\u2019 winning streak snapped<\/div>\n

Carrying a five-game winning streak into their second contest of 2023, Mancos\u2019 girls found themselves skyrocketing up the 2A state polls, reaching No. 5 in the most recent CHSAA coaches poll.<\/p>\n

That run, however, would come to an end at the hands of Sanford, which toppled the Bluejays 45-27, in spite of a team-best 15 points from junior Quincy Montoya.<\/p>\n

The Jays struggled to get the offense in gear, falling behind 20-8 at the break, before generating more of a rhythm in the second half. By then, however, it was too late, as the Mustangs (5-4) leaned on senior standout Alyssa Edgar\u2019s 22 points to pace the visitors.<\/p>\n

Mancos drops to 6-2, and will need to bounce back quickly, as Dove Creek pays a visit on Tuesday, Jan. 17 for a nonleague meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winning streak has Mancos boys above .500<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,28,83,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36315","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=36315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83302,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36315\/revisions\/83302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36315"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}