{"id":48451,"date":"2021-02-21T05:17:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T12:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-fall-in-iml-weekend-doubleheader\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:42:46","slug":"panthers-fall-in-iml-weekend-doubleheader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-fall-in-iml-weekend-doubleheader\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers fall in IML weekend doubleheader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"M-CHS
M-CHS sophomore Sawyer Smith drives in for a lay-up against Centauri\u2019s Baron Holman in a 3A IML game at Montezuma-Cortez High School.<\/span>Ben Bradley\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Spending the first seven games on the road will test the mettle of any team. Add to that, a young roster competing in one of the deepest leagues in the 3A classification, and there\u2019s sure to be a learning curve. Finally playing in front of their home fans, the Montezuma-Cortez boys basketball team made major strides forward against a pair of league front-runners, challenging Alamosa for four quarters in a 64-55 loss before running out of steam against Centauri in an 81-49 defeat.<\/p>\n

M-CHS head coach Mike Hall\u2019s squad jumped out to a 5-3 lead early against the fifth-ranked Falcons and looked to stymie the most prolific scoring team in the 3A Intermountain League. However, as had been the challenge for the Panthers during the early-season road trip, turnovers began to mount for an offense that likes to run and gun.<\/p>\n

Centauri punished the Panthers (1-9, 0-5 3A IML) for those miscues, running off a 19-2 scoring streak to wrap up the opening quarter, with a number of transition buckets coming directly from steals.<\/p>\n

Not to be deterred, however, the Panthers turned to the perimeter in the second frame, as senior Josh Chupp dropped in triples on a couple of successive trips for the Panthers to keep them within reach, trailing 27-13. However, Falcon guards Baron Holman and Trey Crowther showed why Centauri (9-0, 5-0 3A IML) figures to enter next month\u2019s state tournament as one of the teams to watch. The duo combined to tally 22 first-half points, nearly matching the entire Panthers output in the opening 16 minutes, as the Falcons took a 43-23 lead to the break.<\/p>\n

While the second half featured plenty more Centauri offense, Hall had to be thrilled with his team\u2019s aggressiveness attacking the rim in the second half. A pair of sophomores, Sawyer Smith and Gabriel Crowley, dazzled the home crowd with their determination to get to the basket. Smith joined Chupp with team-high honors with 10 points, while Crowley provided a pair of eye-popping assists to join a pair of acrobatic lay-ups in a second half offensive flurry for the home team.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, Holman\u2019s 19 points led a parade of four Falcons finishing in double figures, as Centauri completed the regular season sweep of the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Alamosa 64, M-CHS 55<\/div>\n

Friday night\u2019s meeting with Alamosa brought some of the best basketball of the season out of the Panthers, as they fought toe to toe with the Mean Moose (6-2, 3-1 3A IML) before falling by nine points, 64-55.<\/p>\n

Junior Trinidad McDonell incited a strong first half from the Panthers, as he scored all eight of his points in the second quarter to keep the Panthers within four at the half, 33-29.<\/p>\n

Chupp showed the hot hand from beyond the arc in the second half, knocking in two of his four three-pointers in a tightly contested third quarter, where the Panthers kept the deficit at 48-44 heading to the fourth.<\/p>\n

Junior John Carver put in another solid night, doing most of his damage from the free throw line, as he tallied nine of his game-high 17 points from the charity stripe.<\/p>\n

Alamosa had an answer for every M-CHS run, though, as Damian Orozco and Kane Absmeier scored big buckets late in the game to help the Mean Moose escape with the win.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will take on Montezuma County rival Mancos on Tuesday, Feb. 23 before returning to league play against Bayfield two days later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS hangs tough with Alamosa, Centauri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,36,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48451","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=48451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87387,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48451\/revisions\/87387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48451"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}