{"id":42310,"date":"2022-02-07T17:43:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T00:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-give-cats-a-scare-but-fall-52-41\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:06:33","slug":"bears-give-cats-a-scare-but-fall-52-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-give-cats-a-scare-but-fall-52-41\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears give \u2019Cats a scare, but fall 52-41"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Mark Palate handles the ball just beyond the reach of Ignacio's Eppie Quintana (20) during SJBL action Feb. 4, at DHS.<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For 10 seconds Friday night, Feb. 4, the Bears all but walked on air.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Koskie had started second-half scoring with an innocuous two-pointer, but followed it with a two-handed breakaway dunk after visiting Ignacio lost possession. And with 4:44 left in the third quarter and Ignacio\u2019s 31-25 halftime lead cut to 31-29, sophomore guard Mark Palate hit a go-ahead three-pointer from in front of his elated bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s a great help for us, honestly. Like, he can come in whenever we\u2019re not hitting and hit a spot-up shot,\u201d said senior guard Tru Seekins, whose three first-half treys helped prevent an Ignacio double-digit lead. \u201cDefinitely helps lift a little weight off our shoulders for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for senior Ignacio guard Gabe Tucson, not so much.<\/p>\n

Wasting little time, Tucson coldly canned a long two after Palate\u2019s clutch make for a 33-32 lead with 4:34 to go. Bobcat sophomore Phillip Quintana hit one of two free throws, and Tucson swung momentum Ignacio\u2019s way for good by converting a missed shot into a lay-in andnailing a pullup 14-footer to force Dolores head coach Joel Balderrama into a timeout with 2:08 left in the third.<\/p>\n

Content to help defend against Koskie and even bigger senior Tyler Nowlin from receiving passes into the paint, IHS junior guard Eppie Quintana came out of the timeout with a late basket to increase the Bobcats\u2019 lead to 40-32 going into the final quarter.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Tru Seekins (5) and makes one of his three first-half three-pointers during SJBL action Feb. 4 at home against Ignacio. Seekins had four treys and a team-high 15 points.<\/span>Joel Priest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI wasn\u2019t doing my job I needed to do on offense. I had to make up for it on defense, and I think I did that all right,\u201d he said. \u201cThey came out hot \u2013 out of half \u2013 and we needed to answer back. \u2026 I just felt like I needed to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Ignacio (9-4, 4-2 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League, 2-2 2A SJBL) enjoying their largest lead since swelling a 12-10 first quarter lead to 17-10 early in the second, Dolores (5-7, 3-4, 2-3) steadied enough to play the \u2019Cats to a 9-9 draw the rest of the way, but ultimately fell 52-41 in the 2A-level SJBLers\u2019 first of two encounters.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we always want to win,\u201d Seekins said. \u201cWe did a lot of good things tonight. We moved the ball well, but strayed away from it a little bit, and I think that\u2019s partially \u2026 what took us out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively we\u2019ve really got to step our game up. Our help-side wasn\u2019t as great as it could have been,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd turnovers; turnovers were a big part. Too bad we didn\u2019t come out with the win, but we know what we\u2019ve got to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

With four 3-pointers, Seekins tallied 15 points \u2013 trailing only Tucson\u2019s 19 for tops in the contest \u2013 while Koskie managed 10 points and Palate six. Sophomore reserve Jonathan Purkat chipped in seven but the 6-foot-6 Nowlin was held to three.<\/p>\n

Eppie Quintana booked nine points for IHS, as did freshman reserve Charlie Pargin \u2013 all during the second quarter, with a three-pointer that put Ignacio up by a half-dozen at halftime. Phillip Quintana finished with seven points, and freshman reserve Coty Webb a key four points when Tucson and the elder Quintana were fighting first quarter struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really proud of how \u2026 Charlie just came in and he was making points,\u201d said Eppie Quintana. \u201cCoty was doing the same thing. Coach (Chris Valdez) said, \u2018I need you to hit shots when you go in, not hold us down,\u2019 and they both did really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears travel Feb. 19 to IHS Gymnasium for a rematch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seekins, Koskie star in loss at home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,38,28,846,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42310","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=42310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85289,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42310\/revisions\/85289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42310"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}