{"id":42743,"date":"2022-01-13T16:45:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T23:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-the-birds-jays-win-63-40-at-ignacio\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T23:45:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T23:45:13","slug":"for-the-birds-jays-win-63-40-at-ignacio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-the-birds-jays-win-63-40-at-ignacio\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Birds: Jays win 63-40 at Ignacio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Connor Showalter powers up toward the rim on Tuesday inside Ignacio\u2019s gymnasium. Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Benched the entire third quarter on Tuesday, Evan Sehnert of Mancos admitted afterward that he actually enjoyed the view \u2013 one a typical player who\u2019d just hit three 3-pointers and totaled 15 first-half points normally wouldn\u2019t have seen.<\/p>\n

Particularly on the road in Ignacio with the Bobcats, always dangerous at home, having just closed out the first half trimming an 18-point deficit down to a more manageable 13, 35-22.<\/p>\n

But the 2021-22 Mancos Blue Jays aren\u2019t a typical team, something both the MHS\u2019 senior shooting guard \u2013 who caught fire almost too easily for someone making only his second appearance this winter \u2013 and IHS\u2019 coaching staff both realize.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio
Ignacio sophomore Devante Montoya (11) ponders a three-pointer after evading Mancos' Brian Veach (rear) Tuesday night, Jan. 11, inside IHS Gymnasium. Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI was super-excited to be able to come off and just watch what we\u2019ve been building this whole season. And just see how much we\u2019ve improved since last year,\u201d Sehnert said. \u201cI was excited to see what we can do, and looking forward to see what we can do in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sehnert\u2019s handiwork was too much for the home team to overcome as the Jays coasted to a 63-40 win<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than the Limon and Highland butt-kickings we took \u2026 the last two years, that\u2019s probably the best team I have seen,\u201d said Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez. \u201cThey\u2019re long, they\u2019re fast, they transition, they post up, they shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Assistant coach and former \u2019Cat) Trae (Seibel) said that they looked like my \u201909-10 team except without a big 6\u20199\u201d kid!\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n

But as anyone who\u2019s seen MHS battle IHS for 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League supremacy the past few seasons can tell you, 6-foot-4 senior Connor Showalter does just fine as the current Jays\u2019 Alex Herrera. With Sehnert chilling after intermission, further resting a still-healing left shoulder, \u201cShow\u201d took center stage and, via an array of post moves, running one-handed floaters and even a long-range jumper, booked nine third-quarter points as Mancos rebuilt their lead to 23 points, 52-29, going into the final frame.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Evan Sehnert (4) pulls up at the three-point line, looking to pass away from Ignacio's Phillip Quintana (right) Tuesday night in IHS Gymnasium. Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFirst half, he wasn\u2019t that involved,\u201d said 6-foot-3 senior forward Mason Goodwin, who nailed four of Mancos\u2019 nine treys. \u201cWe know he can score in the paint, so we started to feed him the ball more and he started doing what he does best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Showalter and Sehnert finished with 16 points, and senior point guard Edgar Hernandez registered 13. Goodwin, back in the Mancos Valley after three years at Southern Peaks League force Sanford, also knocked down 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the team to do it,\u201d Goodwin said, addressing the obvious question of whether the Blue Jays can (if not will) advance deep into the postseason. \u201cWe\u2019ve got shooters, we\u2019ve got posts \u2013 you know, we\u2019ve got the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of us \u2013 like Mason \u2013 have been shooting a lot more threes this season, and they\u2019ve just been falling a lot more often. We\u2019re, like, a whole lot more confident in our shooting ability,\u201d Sehnert said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a torn shoulder the first half of the season, so I\u2019m still playing \u2026 limited, but I\u2019m excited to be back. I just wanted to kind of show (Ignacio) how good our team can really be with all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio
Ignacio senior Gabe Tucson (3) shoots a 15-foot jumper Tuesday night inside IHS Gymnasium versus Mancos. Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cA lot of stuff is predicated to defend our interior because we\u2019ve got some size, and because of that we\u2019re able to free up some shooters \u2026 and we have a couple,\u201d MHS head coach Bob Archibeque said. \u201cWe were able to find where the holes were, and were able to knock those threes down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had teams like that, where you just couldn\u2019t guard us,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where our problems are; we can\u2019t guard them right now. We cannot guard (Showalter) in the post; that\u2019s why we have to try to double him and make them beat us from the outside \u2026 and they beat us from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully one of these times they\u2019ll be off a little bit, we\u2019ll get a little hotter, and it\u2019ll be closer,\u201d he said. \u201cPlus, we\u2019re going to learn how to do some things against their 1-3-1, change our whole direction a little bit. But it is what it is, and hats off to them; they played a great game and they\u2019re a great basketball team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior guard\/forward Gabe Tucson managed to rack up 15 points for the Bobcats (5-3 overall, 1-1 SJBL, 0-1 2A SJBL) in defeat, while junior guard Eppie Quintana sank two threes and totaled 10. Sophomore point guard Devante Montoya rainbowed in three triples, two optimistically during the fourth quarter, and finished with nine points.<\/p>\n

Free throws were sparse; IHS finished 1-of-4, while Mancos ended up 6-of-13. Mancos (7-2, 2-0, 1-0), moved up two notches to No. 5 in the latest CHSAANow.com Class 2A poll \u2013 despite a 55-51 loss three days earlier at then-No. 4 Sanford.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively, defensively, all the kids contributed in their own way, and I\u2019m proud of each and every one of them,\u201d Archibeque said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have had a better team effort than we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up next, Ignacio will host Ouray (5-5, 2-1, 1-0 1A SJBL)) on Friday with the JV at 4:30 p.m. and varsity at 6 p.m. Because of COVID-19 problems north of Red Mountain Pass, however, Ignacio will not travel to 2A Ridgway the next afternoon.<\/p>\n

Ridgway\u2019s Demons, meanwhile, will not visit MHS Gymnasium on Friday, meaning the Blue Jays\u2019 next outing will be Tuesday at Dolores.<\/p>\n

Mancos reportedly will now attempt to host RHS on Jan. 29; Feb. 4, has been rumored as a potential date for the Bobcats\u2019 trip north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sehnert, Showalter each net 16 in SJBL power grab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1235,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42743","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=42743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42743"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}