{"id":41942,"date":"2022-02-28T20:38:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T03:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-storms-back-in-second-half-to-beat-ignacio-in-district-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:04:22","slug":"mancos-storms-back-in-second-half-to-beat-ignacio-in-district-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-storms-back-in-second-half-to-beat-ignacio-in-district-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos storms back in second half to beat Ignacio in district tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos'
Mancos' Connor Showalter (24) raises the Class 2A-District 3 Tournament championship plaque for all inside neutral Montezuma-Cortez H.S. Gymnasium to see, following the Blue Jays' 41-33 win Sat., Feb. 26, over Ignacio. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Ignacio Bobcats on Saturday exhibited a carpe diem mentality in the bright, sunlit gym at Montezuma-Cortez High School, and for the first two quarters, appeared to be in position to hoist the Class 2A-District 3 Tournament champions\u2019 plaque.<\/p>\n

Behind senior Gabe Tucson\u2019s early seven points, the No. 2 seed Ignacio went up 11-4 on San Juan Basin League powerhouse Mancos, hoping to follow up on their 58-38 rout of Western Slope Leaguers Olathe the night before.<\/p>\n

But though the weekend\u2019s forecast appeared sunny and clear, there was a strong chance of an afternoon Kail storm.<\/p>\n

Having virtually drowned No. 5 Telluride\u2019s title dreams in the tourney\u2019s first semifinal with a 21-point burst in three quarters of No. 1 Mancos\u2019 74-36 conquest, sophomore Mancos guard Kail Wayman again rained down enough points to drown their hopes.<\/p>\n

Singlehandedly, Wayman made all of Mancos\u2019 second-quarter points. And his back-to-back 3-pointers at the start of the third quarter not only numbed the effect of Bobcat Eppie Quintana\u2019s buzzer-beating 3-pointer ending the first half, but they gave Mancos its first lead in the showdown, 21-20.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos'
Mancos' Kail Wayman celebrates with teammate Chris Medina (5) in the Bluejays\u2019 Class 2A-District 3 Tournament championship win Saturday, Feb. 26, over Ignacio in the neutral Montezuma-Cortez gym. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ignacio\u2019s
Ignacio\u2019s Devante Montoya gets into a scramble for a loose ball Saturday, Feb. 26, versus Mancos in the Class 2A-District 3 Tournament championship game played at neutral Montezuma-Cortez High School.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Gabe Cox strains for the Class 2A-District 3 Tournament championship's initial jump ball against Mancos' Connor Showalter Saturday, Feb. 26, at neutral Montezuma-Cortez High School. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mancos\u2019
Mancos\u2019 Kail Wayman drains a three-pointer during the Class 2A-District 3 Tournament championship Saturday, Feb. 26 against Ignacio\u2019s Phillip Quintana at the neutral Montezuma-Cortez gym. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cHe said just run the danged plays,\u201d Wayman said, paraphrasing head coach Bob Archibeque\u2019s halftime instructions. \u201cSo we ran the plays, started working together \u2026 and that\u2019s how things turned around. It gets a little tiring playing \u2026 the same teams, but we were ready for them and wanted to get it done today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond half, we made some adjustments, and the kids responded,\u201d said Archibeque. \u201cNumber 3 \u2013 Tucson \u2013 had a heck of a first half, and that was our concern. Second half, we shut him down better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slowed by three first-half fouls, senior Mancos center\/forward Connor Showalter followed up Wayman\u2019s makes with just his third basket, but sophomore Ignacio guard Devante Montoya countered with a three to tie the score at 23.<\/p>\n

The sides entered the fourth quarter still tied at 29 after Mancos\u2019 Chris Medina somehow sank a baseline jumper with the Bobcat post man, Gabe Cox, all over him.<\/p>\n

With seniors Evan Sehnert and Mason Goodwin playing injured and knowing the \u2019Cats would key on Wayman outside, Archibeque moved the ball inside. With Showalter working in the paint, the Jays got nine straight points from their big man and held a 38-33 lead going into the final minute, when Quintana fouled out with 0:56.9 remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to give him the ball, and everyone collapses on him because he\u2019s such a great player. And then we have open shots on the three-point line,\u201d said Wayman. \u201cSo we just give it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move inside left Ignacio helpless.<\/p>\n

\u201cCox got tired in the third and fourth, and they went inside,\u201d said Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez. \u201cWe weren\u2019t getting any help \u2026 and they got two or three quick baskets \u2013 gave (us) that deficit we couldn\u2019t overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with Tucson playing with four fouls, Mancos sewed up a 41-33 victory with a free throw by senior Edgar Hernandez and two from Wayman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made the statement that we\u2019re the best in the district, and that when we work together no one can stop us,\u201d said Wayman, who had a game-high 19 points \u2013 besting Tucson by two. Showalter ended up with 15 points. Hernandez had three, and Sehnert and Medina each had two.<\/p>\n

Montoya finished with seven points for Ignacio; Quintana, five; Cox and freshman Charlie Pargin, two.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Phillip Quintana, who had burned Olathe for a game-high 17 points, was held to zero.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out with an attitude that we\u2019re going to go out and play hard, and that they\u2019re going to have to take it from us,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cAnd they did; they\u2019re a good basketball team \u2013 I think they\u2019re top-four \u2013 when they\u2019re playing at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos (18-3), seeded No. 5 in the state tournament, will host Region V against No. 28 Golden View Classical Academy (10-10) at 6 p.m. May 4. No. 12 Peyton (15-6) and 21-seed Crested Butte (12-9) will square off in the 7:30 p.m. game. The winners will clash March 5 at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll pack the gym,\u201d Archibeque said. \u201cThe Mancos fans are great fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeded No. 20 among the state tournament\u2019s 32 teams Ignacio (16-6 overall) will play No. 13 Aurora Lotus School for Excellence (17-4) Friday at 5:30 p.m., as part of Region IV at No. 4 Vail Mountain. Vail Mountain (17-3) will then face 29-seed Lyons (13-9) in the 7 p.m. contest; the winners will then battle the next afternoon at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

Still alive via a 48-42 win over Olathe (6-15) in District 3\u2019s third-place game, Telluride (8-14) received the State Tournament\u2019s No. 30 seed and will next face Region III host Sanford (18-4), with 14-seed Holyoke (13-9) and 19-seed Byers (15-7) meeting in the regional\u2019s other semifinal.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Mancos High School basketball team, champions Saturday in Colorado\u2019s Class 2A-District 3 tournament. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bluejays defeat San Juan Basin rivals Ignacio 41-33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,28,846,37,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41942","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=41942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85159,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41942\/revisions\/85159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41942"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}