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CONEJOS COUNTY \u2013 As difficult it can be to enter a relationship, an exit\u2019s often more elusive.<\/p>\n
Ignacio High School head boys basketball coach Chris Valdez admitted as much following a season-opening loss Saturday at non-league Sanford, regarding continued usage of a 2-3 zone defense regularly exploited by timely outside shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got in a little bit of foul trouble early and I went to it, kind of got married to it,\u201d Valdez said of the zone, \u201cinstead of playing man-to-man like we did late when we made our run, got back within four when we were down by 10. Then, of course, they got to the free-throw line and extended their lead. Lesson learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down by as many as eight points, 19-11, early in the second quarter as Sanford senior center Ruben Chavez quickly booked 11 points, the previously eighth-ranked Bobcats clawed back into contention behind five Bryce Finn points and a half-ending coast-to-coast take by Dylan Labarthe that left IHS down 25-22 at intermission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited to finally start,\u201d said Labarthe, a senior forward, who\u2019d out-leapt Chavez to win the initial jump ball. \u201cFrom my first year and stuff and now my last year playing with everyone, I was excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior guard Joe Garcia, also amped to become a varsity regular and an even more essential one with Triston Thompson unfortunately off the roster, finally regained Ignacio (0-1, 0-0 2A\/1A San Juan Basin) a 29-28 advantage with a three-point play resulting from a Justin McCarroll foul, and then answered Chavez\u2019s subsequent go-ahead bucket with a conventional, confident 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
Sanford freshman guard Cash Caldon responded in kind from deep, the second of what would end up being four crucial 3s, and the previously fifth-ranked Indians would outscore the Bobcats 6-1 the rest of the third quarter, with two Kelton Gartrell free throws (coming with only 1.8 seconds left) increasing SHS\u2019 lead to 39-33.<\/p>\n
A Caldon 3 plus Gartrell put-back later swelled the advantage to 46-36 before IHS began full-court pressing the issue and regenerating the intensity expected of crews set to have clashed last year in the COVID-curtailed 2020 Class 2A State Championships\u2019 do-or-die consolation-bracket semifinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIgnacio\u2019s a good team, and we were lucky they were on their first game while we were glad to have a couple games\u2019 experience,\u201d said SHS skipper Rhett Larsen, alluding to the 62-55 loss to No. 11 Mancos (now ranked No. 5) as well as a non-league season-opening home win on Thursday over Custer County. \u201cMainly, we\u2019ve got to get better on defense, stronger on the boards and get continuity from our offense; we\u2019ve got a lot of new guys in new places.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s how Mancos beat them; they put a little bit of pressure on bigger guys who weren\u2019t as good with the basketball,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to try to do next time if we get a chance at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back-to-back hoops by Labarthe (six points) and Finn (11) got the Bobcats back to 49-45, but Chavez countered with three free throws in four tries. IHS senior guard Brady McCaw managed to convert an and-one drive with 10.6 seconds remaining, slicing the deficit down to 52-48, but Sanford junior Ethan Larsen (11 points) iced the game with a free throw. SHS went 12-of-15 from the stripe; IHS ended up 9-of-14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got a little scared; we were able to get some steals and easy baskets,\u201d said McCaw, who booked a team-high 16 points. \u201cWe were just messing up, making silly fouls and losing the ball, but we were just excited to get playing again finally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia finished with eight points, while junior Gabe Tucson contributed five and senior reserve Jawadin Corona two.<\/p>\n
Chavez, meanwhile, racked up 18 points, as did Caldon for Sanford (2-1, 0-0 2A Southern Peaks) in victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cRuben did a really good job. He was battling on the boards, got a lot of tough buckets that we needed,\u201d Larsen said. \u201cWe\u2019d miss shots and he\u2019d come up with the rebound, and there were a couple times he got his own rebound and put it back. Just relentless in there. He was really sharp but I was proud of them all.<\/p>\n
\u201cThird game in three days and, you know, they showed some signs of being tired but they fought through it. They stepped up, made free throws at the end; that showed a lot of fortitude on their part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up next for Ignacio will be the Four Corners Southwest Classic, with 3A Montezuma-Cortez first up at 4 p.m. Friday, inside Class 4A Durango High School\u2019s gymnasium. The Bobcats will then face 3A Bayfield at 11 a.m. Saturday but will not duel the rotating tournament\u2019s 2021 hosts.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach (Larsen) even told me, \u2018For your first game, you guys really looked like you had it together a little bit,\u2019\u201d said Valdez. \u201cWe made a lot of mistakes, but he complimented us on how well we played for our first game. Goes, \u2018We\u2019ve got to do this three nights in a row, kind of get it down, and you still made us look bad at times.\u2019 But that doesn\u2019t win us the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll get to see Cortez, and they\u2019ve got a good team again, I\u2019m sure. And Bayfield, we\u2019ve got to step it up and play better than we did if we want to beat those teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
defense leads to open shots outside for home team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[846,427,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-prep-sports","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48552","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=48552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48552"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}