<\/p>\n
One day after its season opening game was canceled because of snow, the Montezuma-Cortez High School overcame an 11-point first-quarter deficit and defeated Dolores High School, 64-46, on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n
The contest at Dolores High School, with a small crowd limited by the pandemic, offered players the opportunity to test themselves in masks as mandated by the Colorado High School Activities Association.<\/p>\n
While players said the masks made breathing and shooting more difficult, they were happy to engage in live-game action for the first time this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty tough on the court, the masks can take a toll on you,\u201d said M-CHS junior J.T. Carver, who scored a game-high 22 points. \u201cI\u2019m just happy with got the win. Last year, we probably had more talent, but this year, I trust every single person on the team. \u2026 We are unselfish, and we get everybody involved. I think it\u2019s going to be a good season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the result of the contest was positive for M-CHS, the opening minutes were anything but smooth for the Panthers as Dolores deftly ran its half-court offense and jumped to an 11-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Keying the Bears\u2019 burst were seniors Kevin Purkat and Hayden Tallmadge, who attacked the basket against the Panthers\u2019 undersized defense while combining to score nine of their team\u2019s first 11 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little surprised,\u201d said M-CHS senior Ernie Padilla. \u201cAfter the first five or 10 minutes, we started getting into it and getting a feel for the game again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sparking the turnaround, Carver drained a long 3-pointer from the wing and hit free throws in the first 8 minutes.<\/p>\n
Also, senior Dylan Kibel scored a strong put-back in the paint and a baseline 3-pointer to get things going.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter we went down 11-0, (M-CHS head coach Mike Hall) called a timeout and sat us down,\u201d Carver said. \u201cHe told us that we needed to slow stuff down, stop trying to play individual ball, get everyone involved, and play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind 16-15 to begin the second quarter after a 16-4 M-CHS run, Dolores regained its composure in its half-court motion offense, which freed Tallmadge to score seven of his team-high 14 points during the frame.<\/p>\n
Among Tallmadge\u2019s biggest buckets was an off-balance 3-pointer from the wing that he drained just before the halftime buzzer to ignite the home crowd and give Dolores a 27-24 lead heading into halftime.<\/p>\n
Although the Bears seemed to have momentum at halftime, M-CHS turned the tide in the third quarter with hustle plays and two key steals by Padilla. Heading into the final 8 minutes, the Panthers led 43-34.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not very tall,\u201d said Padilla, referencing the fact that no M-CHS player is over 6 feet, 1 inch tall. \u201cIf we all box out and go for rebounds, we should be able to get the ball and advance down the floor. We did a better job of that in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
M-CHS poured it on in the final quarter as Carver scored nine points in the final 8 minutes and sophomore Sawyer Smith added four.<\/p>\n
Leading scorers for Dolores were Tallmadge with 14 points, Purkat with 10, and Tyler Nowlin with six. M-CHS was led by Carver with 22, Smith with 14 and Kibel with 7.<\/p>\n
Now 1-0, M-CHS will prepare for a road matchup against Montrose on Jan. 30. Dolores will host Ouray on Jan. 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to improve on our communication and we need to talk on the floor,\u201d said Padilla. \u201cWe did a little bit of that tonight, but we can get a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
22 points as M-CHS opens with a 64-36 win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48907","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=48907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87482,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48907\/revisions\/87482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48907"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}