{"id":66151,"date":"2020-02-17T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-fire-on-all-cylinders-during-win-over-nucla\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:35:23","slug":"bluejays-fire-on-all-cylinders-during-win-over-nucla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-fire-on-all-cylinders-during-win-over-nucla\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluejays fire on all cylinders during win over Nucla"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Hunter Goodwin rises before releasing a baseline jumper during his team\u2019s win over Nucla on Feb. 13.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Playing in just his third game of the season after a knee injury last fall, Mancos High School Hunter Goodwin hoped he would be able to make his senior night a memorable one.<\/p>\n

And he did, delivering 11 points and three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Bluejays roll to an 84-20 victory over Nucla High School Feb. 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was crazy nervous, but I was excited to play,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cI\u2019ve been shooting while I\u2019ve been hurt, and my shot is feeling good. It feels good to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos also received offensive contributions from four players who scored in double figures and six who scored at least eight points.<\/p>\n

Leading the way was sophomore Connor Showalter with a game-high 19 points. Senior Caden Showalter had 12 points and 11 rebounds, junior Christian Cova scored 11 points, and sophomore Edgar Hernandez and Evan Sehnert both had eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, on senior night, it\u2019s pretty emotional,\u201d said Showalter. \u201cWe wanted to make it a night to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eager to establish momentum, the Bluejays raced to a 14-0 lead, than expanded their lead to 20-4 by the end of the first quarter after a runner by Connor Showalter and an offensive rebound and put-back by Caden Showalter.<\/p>\n

Mancos continued to dominate in the second quarter as Connor Showalter used his speed to convert three transition layups and hit a 3-pointer just before halftime to help the Bluejays build a 40-12 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays didn\u2019t let up in the third quarter, picking up its defensive intensity and outscoring Nucla 21-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew at halftime what the score was, and I told them that next Tuesday (against Ignacio), we\u2019re going to need to play a full 32-minute game, so we need to make that we\u2019ve got the legs to do that,\u201d Knepper explained.<\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, the Bluejays\u2019 senior starters played one possession before being substituted out of the game while home fans expressed their appreciation in the form of ruckus cheers.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Our seniors) helped us produce the school\u2019s first state tournament berth in 20 some years,\u201d coach Elijah Knepper said. \u201cWe won our first league title in a bunch of years last year. \u2026 They were 7-15 their freshman year, and now we\u2019re 14-3. They\u2019ve come a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winners of five straight games and 8-1 in the San Juan Basin League, Mancos will prepare for a home showdown against league leader Ignacio on Feb. 18. The Bobcats handed the Bluejays a 67-61 loss earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be able to keep our composure and defend against shooters,\u201d Knepper said. \u201cI\u2019ve been worried about us more than the other team all year and that\u2019s not going to change. We need to do what we do well and hopefully, we\u2019ll have a great environment in the Mancos gym on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

players score at least eight points in 84-20 victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,37,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66151","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=66151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90350,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66151\/revisions\/90350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66151"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}