{"id":95707,"date":"2019-02-07T10:54:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-score-with-dominating-defense\/"},"modified":"2019-02-07T10:54:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:54:15","slug":"bluejays-score-with-dominating-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-score-with-dominating-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluejays score with dominating defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Although the Mancos High School boys basketball team has displayed plenty of offensive firepower this season, it was the team\u2019s lockdown defense that carried it to a 62-35 victory in Dolores on Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

Utilizing a 1-3-1 zone most of the night, the Bluejays forced turnovers and held the Bears scoreless for long stretches, including much of an 8-minute stretch during the second quarter during which Dolores scored just six points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told (our team) yesterday, we\u2019re not always going to make shots, but that can\u2019t dictate how we play in other aspects of the game,\u201d Mancos head coach Elijah Knepper said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t make a ton of shots, but we let our defense create some things for us, and that paid big dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the features of the Bluejays\u2019 1-3-1 zone that caused the most difficulty for Dolores was the length of Mancos senior Vassar Stephens, whose length consistently bothered Bears guards and forced numerous steals.<\/p>\n

Also contributing to Dolores\u2019 difficulties was the team\u2019s inability to collect rebounds on either end of the floor, which led to a wide discrepancy between the two teams in the number of second-chance points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to improve on rebounding, not turning the ball over, and running the offense like it\u2019s supposed to be executed,\u201d Dolores head coach Larry Schwartz said. \u201cWe had too many turnovers and not enough rebounds. That was the story of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mancos\u2019 defense starred on one end of the floor, Bluejays Hunter Hoover played a lead role on other end of the court while scoring eight of his team\u2019s 10 points during a first quarter that ended with Mancos leading 10-8.<\/p>\n

Hoover and junior Caden Showalter continued to dominate down low in the second quarter and after numerous offensive rebounds and several layups, Mancos opened up a 29-15 halftime lead. Hoover ended up with 14 points overall, and Showalter scored 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to pierce their defense and get behind them and hit the posts,\u201d Hoover said. \u201cIt was working well for me to pick up the scraps and get the dish-outs.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the game in hand throughout much of the second half, Mancos looked to Stephens to provide a scoring punch, and the senior delivered with 12 of his team-high 20 points over the final 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

Among Stephens\u2019 most impressive plays was a highlight-reel dunk that came after Christian Cova threw the ball off the backboard to Stephens, who hammered the ball through the rim with two hands as the crowd gasped.<\/p>\n

Several bench players, including junior Anthony Medina and freshman Chase Moore, also made key plays for Mancos as the duo known for their exploits on the football field each scored six points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to go in there and help our team as much as we can,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe just try to play our roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores was led in scoring by star senior Tristan Swagerty, who scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Dakota Smith scored six points, and William Swagerty and Neil Farias each scored four for the Bears.<\/p>\n

With its record now at 8-9 overall and 4-6 in the San Juan Basin League, Dolores will prepare for a road matchup against Telluride on Feb. 9. Mancos will put its 10-5 overall record and 7-1 SJBL record on the line when it travels to face Nucla on Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just focused on getting better every day,\u201d said Knepper, when asked about his team\u2019s upcoming match up. \u201cWe\u2019re not taking anybody lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

up its defense during decisive 62-35 victory over rivals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[38,37,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95707","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=95707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95707"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}