{"id":74989,"date":"2020-02-25T22:20:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T05:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-wolverines-stun-montezuma-cortez-in-intermountain-league-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:34:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:34:34","slug":"bayfield-wolverines-stun-montezuma-cortez-in-intermountain-league-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-wolverines-stun-montezuma-cortez-in-intermountain-league-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield Wolverines stun Montezuma-Cortez in Intermountain League tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Andrew Wood drives for an uncontested layup during the first half of his team\u2019s loss to Bayfield on Tuesday in the first round of the Intermountain League tournament.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With 45 seconds left in a thrilling Intermountain League District Tournament contest between Montezuma-Cortez High School and Bayfield High School, members of the host Panthers\u2019 student section loudly chanted, \u201cI believe that we will win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Panthers\u2019 faithful, belief did not become reality as the sixth-seed Bayfield Wolverines (4-16) erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit and came through with a stunning 65-63 victory over the tournament\u2019s third-seeded team.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Landon Kennedy led Bayfield offensively with 18 points, and junior Hunter Bayles chipped in 12 points for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at a high right now,\u201d said Bayfield sophomore Isaac Ross, who knocked down two key 3-pointers during the fourth quarter and scored 12 points in the game. \u201cThis is the best that we\u2019ve been playing as a team all year. Honestly, I think we can beat anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ross\u2019 hot shooting over the final eight minutes proved key in the Wolverines\u2019 victory, the role of hero was ultimately played by junior Kacey Chandler, who knocked down what turned out to be the game-winning jump shot from the free throw line with 20 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Chandler\u2019s clutch shot came after M-CHS senior Adrian Mark hit his first of two free throws to tie the game, 63-63 with 28.2 seconds left. After Mark missed his second free throw, Chandler pushed the ball up the court and pulled up for a wide open shot in transition.<\/p>\n

\"Bayfield
Bayfield junior Kacey Chandler puts up a runner during the fourth quarter of his team\u2019s 65-63 victory over Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday night.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI was going down, and they were sticking out on the 3-point shooters,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cCoach has us shoot that shot all the time in practice, and so it\u2019s just like any other shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the final result of the contest was a thrilling one for Bayfield, the game\u2019s exciting ending was somewhat surprising in light of the fact M-CHS (10-10) controlled the pace throughout the second and third quarters and led 45-35 entering the final quarter of play.<\/p>\n

Leading the way offensively for the Panthers was senior Titus Jackson, who mixed slicing layups with unusually accurate 3-point shooting while scoring a game-high 21 points. Mark scored 14 points for M-CHS and senior Teagan Whiteskunk chipped in 11 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got in foul trouble, we lost a little momentum and we just didn\u2019t knock down our shots,\u201d M-CHS coach Michael Hall said. \u201cWe missed some wide open layups and we missed five (3-pointers in a row).\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the Panthers\u2019 fourth quarter shooting struggles, a Bayfield victory would not have come to fruition absent the Wolverines\u2019 tenacious defense and clutch shooting down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Five Bayfield players, including Kennedy, Bayles, Ross, Chandler and junior Crosby Edwards, scored during the game\u2019s final eight minutes as Bayfield continued to chip away at its deficit before taking its first lead of the game when Bayles hit two free throws to put his team ahead 55-54 with 3:07 left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told our guys to focus on one possession at a time. We just had to get it back and they did,\u201d Bayfield head coach Klint Chandler said. \u201cWe got some stops, and I thought we were getting some stops in the third, but we couldn\u2019t score. We started knocking down some shots there and that helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Titus Jackson and Bayfield junior Landon Kennedy battle for a rebound during the fourth quarter of a game between their respective teams on Friday night.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 3-pointer by Ross on the ensuing offensive possession put Bayfield back in front by a point. After Jackson scored a layup to put M-CHS back ahead, the Wolverines pulled ahead for good when Ross drained a 3-pointer from the right baseline with 1:48 left to put his team ahead 61-59.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come in off the bench a lot, and I was thinking that I needed to do something to get us back into the game because we were down at the time,\u201d Ross said. \u201cI just got hot and I kept shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to Ross\u2019 hot shooting, Chandler\u2019s game winner and Bayfield\u2019s big win, the Wolverines ensured that they will play at least one more game. That game will take place in Monte Vista against Centauri High School on Friday in the league tournament semifinals. BHS has come a long way since a 77-51 loss to M-CHS on Jan. 18 when it was in the midst of a 12-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will await word as to whether they will play in the Class 3A Regional Tournament, which will include the top 32 teams in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started today, we were ranked 33rd (in the RPI rankings), so a bunch of crazy stuff would have to happen for us to move into that upper 32,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe could play another postseason game, but probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bayfield gets just fourth win of season in league quarterfinals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,1871,28,427,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-prep-sports","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74989","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=74989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90296,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74989\/revisions\/90296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74989"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}