Young crew starts season off winning
Ignacio head coach Shane Seibel had quipped after a practice leading up to the 2016-17 season-opener that he “was still looking for a point guard.”
He certainly could do a whale of a world worse than junior Avionne Gomez.
Running things in place of the transferred Hilda Garcia Thursday, Dec. 1, as part of a youthful starting lineup including freshman Makayla Howell, junior Allisianna Baker, freshman Larissa Gallegos and senior Tori Archuleta, Gomez also showed some of last winter’s scoring flair with 14 points in a 45-18 win at Dove Creek.
“I thought she turned it on,” said Seibel. “She’s our leader and she really showed me something. She was getting a little frustrated that first quarter, and then she was able to take a deep breath and really lead in every category. From hustling to getting on the ground, and – what I like to see – the boxing-out, she did a fantastic job.”
The early stress wasn’t without cause; the Lady Bulldogs managed to come as close as 6-5 with 5:00 left in the first frame, after three easy Baker buckets inside had the Lady Bobcats (1-0, 1-0 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) threatening to quickly turn the game into a rout.
But IHS ended the quarter on an 8-4 run, capped by eager sophomore Payton Lyon’s near-three-point play – her first two varsity points – after taking a hack from DCHS freshman Cassie Gatlin with 1:06 left.
“We did great,” she said. “We’re a team that really emphasizes recognizing what our defense gives us. We have set plays that give us opportunities, but what our plays are based on is recognizing what the defense gives us.”
Or what the Lady ’Cats can take from one. Gomez’s virtual end-to-end take with 4:44 left before halftime put Ignacio ahead 21-13, and in turning Dove Creek’s ‘D’ to Swiss cheese with her cuts and turns, showed that the enemy’s energy was already nearing depletion.
“Having two freshmen starters – I mean, that’s really tough for a team to just come together and click!” Lyon said. “I think our attitudes were really good; we stayed humble, stayed hungry the whole entire game and just gave it everything we had.”
IHS went into the locker room up 27-13, then came back out and held DCHS to just one point in increasing their advantage to 33-14 through 24 completed regulation minutes. Howell (four points) would foul out with 1:32 left in the contest, but the Lady ’Cats went out on a high note with a basket apiece from Gallegos and reserves Veronica Gonzales and Sidney Cox.
“I thought they stepped up pretty amazingly their first time out,” said Seibel. “They were awfully nervous, told me ‘Coach, I’m so nervous!’ And they performed well. Got a lot of room for improvement, but they did o.k.”
Baker totaled eight points in the victory, Lyon booked five, Gallegos equaled Archuleta’s four, and sophomore Kiana Valdez chipped in two. Senior Shelby Fullmer’s seven paced the Lady Bulldogs (0-1, 0-1), with Gatlin registering five and sophomore Madilyn Hankins four.
“Although we’re very young, I would say a lot of the juniors and sophomores are really stepping up and taking that leadership we just don’t have – we don’t have that ‘seniority,’ that experience – on the team,” Lyon said. “I think everybody’s doing a really great job of encouraging each other, pushing each other to just keep moving up.”
“They’re starting to grasp that they’re not looking at me to call the play. They’re actually recognizing how to read and react accordingly,” said Seibel, “and that’s our offense – them not being able to look at me … and our point guard, from Avi to Tori, to recognize what play to call.”
Up next, Ignacio plays Dec. 9-10 at the Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panther Invitational, then hosts Dolores on the 13th to wrap up the presently-shown, pre-Christmas portion of their schedule.
“Everybody’s keeping their spirits high,” said Lyon. “We’re going to work on embracing adversity. No matter what the refs give us, what the defense gives us, no matter what happens on the floor…we are going to take it and we’re going to make the best out of it.”