M-CHS goes wire-to-wire in Ignacio
Montezuma-Cortez varsity rookie Milah Begay’s first three-pointer – a first-quarter bank shot – Thursday evening, Feb. 15, simply made the guests’ good start even greater, upping M-CHS’ initial 6-0 lead on Ignacio to 13-4.
Her next trey however may have swayed, if not saved, the day.
IHS junior Marissa Olguin had closed out the opening eight minutes with a three-pointer bringing the home team back to 13-9 before the Lady Panthers then began the second stanza rebuilding their lead to 18-9 with 6:40 left until halftime. But with 5:53 to go, the Lady Bobcats were back to 20-14 after another Olguin triple – made directly in front of M-CHS head coach Brad Wright, whose expression alone asked the question of how one of IHS’ top guns was left a loose cannon.
Senior Darlyn Mendoza-Lechuga then made three free throws in four attempts, halving Montezuma-Cortez’s lead down to a shaky 20-17. Begay answered with her second three-ball, though, and the Lady Panthers then surged ahead to a 29-21 advantage keyed by a fortuitous 2-and-2 with 1:11 remaining.
Senior Markylla Jones scored a basket inside, was fouled and went to the charity stripe for the ‘and-one’ bonus try. She missed, but junior Kalea Ogo won the rebound and quickly dished off to sophomore Sariah Jackson for, essentially, an Ignacio-irking four-point play.
The Lady ’Cats managed to enter intermission down just 29-24, but after M-CHS junior Taylor Whited began the third quarter with a steal, the margin re-grew to 31-24 after the ball was zipped ahead to – you guessed it – Begay for a layup.
“Huge – and she’s just a freshman,” Wright beamed afterwards, when asked if Begay was M-CHS’ x-factor. “But those threes in the first half were monstrous; that’s what really kept the momentum going for us.”
“I think we did a really good job of … every time they got one, we got one back,” he added. “So, the girls’ shot selection was excellent tonight; I don’t feel like we forced anything.”
After IHS senior Solymar Cosio converted a Mendoza-Lechuga feed with 1:11 left into two points keeping Ignacio within seven, 37-30, Begay was hit with her fourth personal foul, but the Lady Panthers nevertheless started the fourth quarter up 39-33 despite yet another Olguin bomb.
And just 20 seconds into the final frame, the writing was on the wall for the Lady ’Cats; Jackson grabbed back-to-back offensive rebounds, netted a basket off the second one – and drew a foul, resulting in a FT make widening the scoreboard gap to 42-33. Whited then capitalized upon the re-found energy with a three-pointer, and Ogo followed with a layup – created by her leaping interception of a pass meant for Mendoza-Lechuga – increasing M-CHS’ lead to 47-35 with 5:49 left.
Olguin cashed her game-high fourth trey with 2:39 remaining, but with Ignacio still trailing 49-38 it was just too little, too late for the Lady ’Cats in their regular-season home finale. Begay would net one more two-pointer, senior Kayce Tom was accurate on two mid-range jumpers, and Whited nailed her third three in helping the visitors prevail 58-44.
“One of the things we’d worked on the past couple days is execution,” said Wright. “We’ve been without (injured senior) Savannah Haselroth – she leads us in so many things on our team, as well as composure – so for the girls to pull together and actually execute, play the game … I’m really proud of them.”
Whited finished with 15 points for Montezuma-Cortez (10-9 overall, 6-4 3A/4A Intermountain), equaling Olguin’s count for tops in the contest. Held scoreless in the first quarter, Jones then tallied eight in the second en route to totaling 14 points, and Begay ended up with an even dozen. Tom booked eight points, Jackson five and Ogo four.
Ever problematic in the paint, Cosio managed to also reach double figures for Ignacio (7-12, 3-7 IML) by logging 12 points. Mendoza-Lechuga scored seven, and junior DaLaney Wesner ended the game banking in a running mid-range shot from the right wing, giving her six points. Senior Lauren deKay and sophomore Alyssa Atencio each chipped in two as the Lady ’Cats – minus senior Maci Barnes, out due to a recent gruesome finger injury – suffered a fourth straight setback.
“We still didn’t do a very good job of handling Soly; she was a bear!” Wright said. “And then once they’d get it into Soly, we’d collapse but they’re really good at kicking it out – and they’ve got great shooters.”
Up next for both IHS and M-CHS will be the IML District Tournament, to be held Feb. 23-24 in Bayfield. And as it turns out, the crews will go head-to-head on Day 1 of the event at 5 p.m.