{"id":96263,"date":"2019-01-13T17:35:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-struggle-to-score-in-tough-loss-to-bobcats\/"},"modified":"2019-01-13T17:35:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:35:26","slug":"bears-struggle-to-score-in-tough-loss-to-bobcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-struggle-to-score-in-tough-loss-to-bobcats\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears struggle to score in tough loss to Bobcats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dolores\u2019
Dolores\u2019 Tristen Swagerty (11) looks around a possible Ignacio triple team on Jan. 10.<\/span>Joel Priest\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Even though the Dolores High School boys basketball team defeated Ignacio earlier this season, Bears\u2019 head coach Larry Schwartz knew that beating the Bobcats a second time would be no easy task.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Ignacio arrived in Dolores on Jan. 11 well prepared, and after four tough quarters, the Bears found themselves on the wrong end of a 48-35 final score.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ignacio head coach) Chris Valdez and I talked about it at the end. (Ignacio) had two tough games under its belt since (New Year\u2019s) and hasn\u2019t played since before Christmas break,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt showed. Offensively, we looked out of rhythm and out of sorts, and Ignacio played really well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the consistent themes throughout the contest was Dolores\u2019 difficulty in executing its offense and getting open shots as Bears\u2019 players consistently launched off-balance shots from the perimeter.<\/p>\n

An exception to the Dolores norm was star senior Tristan Swagerty, who consistently attacked opposing defenders and scored from all areas of the floor on his way to a team-high 22 points. Often fighting double and triple teams however, Swagerty uncharacteristically turned the ball over several times and was forced into several difficult shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s having a phenomenal year,\u201d Schwartz said of Swagerty. \u201cWhen we get it inside, and the double team comes, we have to learn how to kick it out to our young shooters. Once we figure that part of the puzzle out, we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite their offensive difficulties, the Bears remained competitive throughout the first half, which ended with Dolores trailing 19-13.<\/p>\n

The score would have been even closer if not for a momentum-changing layup by Ignacio freshman Gabe Tucson with two seconds left in the half, which came after Valdez called a set play from the sidelines that included a back pick and an alley-oop pass.<\/p>\n

Throughout much of the second half, Ignacio ran a basic flex offense that utilized back-picks along the baseline and created easy scoring opportunities. At one point, Valdez screamed from his bench, \u201cRun something you know, something basic, like middle school,\u201d and his players responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we adjusted to (Ignacio\u2019s) flex offense at halftime, but we let them sneak in too many of those backdoor cuts,\u201d Schwartz said. I was proud of our defense overall, but we can still do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Dolores pulled within 11 points several times throughout the fourth quarter and trailed 44-33 with about three minutes left, the Bears were never able to get closer before the final buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Kevin Purkat scored five points and Neil Farias and Dakota Smith both scored four for Dolores.<\/p>\n

The Bears traveled to Ridgway on Jan. 11 and lost 45-44 before returning to Dolores on Jan. 12 and losing a heartbreaker to Telluride, 47-45.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to work on consistency,\u201d Swagerty said. \u201cWe start getting in slumps and then we have to dig ourselves out the rest of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores coach praises Bears defense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[38,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96263","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=96263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96263"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}