{"id":96181,"date":"2019-01-17T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T18:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-face-challenging-league-games-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2019-01-17T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T18:33:13","slug":"panthers-face-challenging-league-games-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-face-challenging-league-games-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers face challenging league games this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School vs. Durango on Jan. 5. The Panthers can expect another physical game against visiting Alamosa.<\/span>The Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When the Montezuma-Cortez High School boys basketball team takes to its home court this weekend, expect to see a motivated group looking for redemption.<\/p>\n

Coming off a late 50-48 defeat to Bayfield last week, the Panthers face a physical Alamosa High School team on Friday, then 9-2 Centauri on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Winners of the Intermountain League\u2019s regular season title last season, the Alamosa Mean Moose come with an overall 6-4 record.<\/p>\n

While Alamosa graduated top scorers Ry Adams and Noah Romero off last year\u2019s roster, this year\u2019s Mean Moose team returns with several experienced upperclassmen.<\/p>\n

Among those are junior forward Ian Jackson, who has averaged 15.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this season by utilizing his 6-foot-2 frame to control the paint and keep defenders in check.<\/p>\n

Also looking to give M-CHS problems will be junior shooting guard Brenden Crowther, who averages 14.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Forward Chad Jackson averages 13.8 points per game this year.<\/p>\n

For M-CHS to win, it will likely need solid performances from senior forwards Cordell Baer and Jens Jorgensen in the paint. Several football players dot Alamosa\u2019s roster, and the Mean Moose have been one of the state\u2019s toughest Class 3A programs.<\/p>\n

Although Alamosa defeated M-CHS 65-51 and 70-31 in two games last season, those losses preceded the emergence of Panthers star Teagan Whiteskunk, whose season averages of 20.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 3.8 steals per game this season are among the best in the league.<\/p>\n

If M-CHS can set the pace and get the ball in the hands of speedsters like Titus Jackson, Michael Diaz and Whiteskunk, expect the Panthers to squeak their way to a five-point win.<\/p>\n

Centauri looking to turn tables<\/div>\n

In three matchups last season, the Panthers proved to be the team in control as they beat Centauri by scores of 73-69, 64-57 and 63-60.<\/p>\n

Although a roster and season statistics are not available for this year\u2019s Centauri team, the fact that the Falcons have won nine of their 11 contests should concern M-CHS.<\/p>\n

Key in all three matchups last year was M-CHS\u2019 ability to dictate the pace and control Centauri\u2019s fast break. If the Panthers are able to deal with Centauri\u2019s pressure again this season, expect M-CHS to walk away with a hard-fought win.<\/p>\n

The Alamosa game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. Centauri visits M-CHS at 1 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS looking to bounce back from loss to Bayfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[36,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96181","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=96181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96181"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}