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Ignacio junior Stoney White Thunder-Lucero (32) nails a three-pointer with fewer than 15 seconds remaining in the Bobcats’ 3A/4A Intermountain League game Saturday evening, Jan. 18, versus Pagosa Springs. The 3A Bobcats fell 46-40 to the 4A Pirates.
Ignacio senior Angelo Frost stays focused on the hoop while defended by a Pagosa Springs player during 3A/4A Intermountain League action Saturday evening, Jan. 18, inside IHS Gymnasium. Frost scored five points, but the 3A Bobcats fell 46-40 to the 4A Pirates.
Photo Credit: Joel Priest | Special to the Drum
Photo Credit: Joel Priest | Special to the Drum
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Intermountain League opener opens Bobcats’ eyes


Rally against Pagosa comes up short

Giving? Charity? Sharing? That season was soooooo last month. (Literally).

With his team wrapping up its first weekend of 3A/4A Intermountain League work Saturday evening, Jan. 18, at 3A Ignacio, 4A Pagosa Springs’ Seth Zeigler was about as greedy as it gets – and his fellow Pirates had to love him for it.

Coming off a 51-36 loss the previous night at Monte Vista, the visitors found themselves again trailing through the first eight intense minutes, 13 to 8, inside IHS Gymnasium as Bobcat junior Trace Crane began the contest sinking a three-pointer, senior Angelo Frost made one with just 39.2 seconds left, and sophomore Cayson Burcham buried another just before the buzzer.

Had it not been for five Zeigler points and five Zeigler rebounds, PSHS could have already been in a world of hurt heading into the second quarter. Fortunately, Zeigler was just getting started; two more points and five more boards later, the Pirates were heading back to their locker room at halftime suddenly up 28-21.

Singular three-pointers by junior guard Creede Dozier – who’d caught fire in the second and sank three treys – and senior guard Colt Lewis, plus another four Zeigler rebounds then helped Pagosa Springs expand the margin to 36-27 beginning the fourth and final frame. And though Ignacio managed to close the gap down to 40-35 – via a Burcham runner set up by junior Sonny Flores’ defensive rebound against, impressively, Zeigler, and subsequent outlet pass across midcourt – with 3:33 remaining, five points would be as close to victory as the ’Cats would get in their IML opener.

Crucial in helping hold Dozier and Lewis to just three total baskets inside the three-point perimeter, Flores would foul out with 2:14 to go, and the home team found itself down 45-37 before junior reserve Stoney White Thunder-Lucero cashed a most-optimistic three, assisted by Burcham, from the far corner with only 10.2 ticks left.

White Thunder-Lucero then fouled PSHS’ Jaxten Scheil on the ensuing inbounds pass, stopping the clock with 0:08.9 still showing on the scoreboard clock. But Scheil made one of his two free throws, and time quickly ran out on the Bobcats – needing two triples to even tie, but having made only one since their sizzling start.

“We’ve been playing from behind all season, so to be able to get on top early, really be the aggressors and have them try to catch up just helped us out a lot,” said Zeigler, who finished with eight points and 17 rebounds in the Pirates’ 46-40 win.

“Our boxing-out was excellent this game,” he continued. “It’s been a little iffy in the past but this game I feel like we all really bought in … which gave me the chance to go up and get those rebounds. So I’m giving the credit to my teammates.”

“Second-chance points are always a good thing to get,” Burcham said. “We just started off not strong enough. We need to start working together and get motivated … to be able to pull out some wins. And rebounding aggressively is one big thing that starts to get us motivated.”

“We need to work on playing against a zone (defense); we’re used to playing against man-to-man,” noted Crane, who grabbed 13 rebounds of his own and matched that with 13 points – trailing Burcham’s 15 for the team-high. “And take away their threes; we wanted to stop (Dozier) – but we also needed to make sure we boxed out because they’re bigger than us.”

Dozier finished with four threes and 15 points to pace Pagosa Springs (2-9 overall, 1-1 IML), while Lewis ended up with 14 points – largely due to making six of eight fourth-quarter free throws and finishing 7-of-10 from the foul line, where the Pirates were a collective 11-of-19. Scheil did most of his damage during PSHS’ second-quarter push, netting all four of his two-point buckets, and totaled nine points.

“We switched it up to a zone … and we hadn’t run zone all year,” Dozier said. “We just tried something new to see what we could get going, to help us out. I think that helped, just changing up the way we played. Hopefully we just keep going after this; we needed one win under our belt to get going, you know? Get that (eight-game losing) streak out of our system and hopefully we just go on a roll from here.”

Frost ended up with five points for Ignacio (7-5, 0-1), while Flores and junior Ambrose Valdez ended up with two points apiece. Attempting all the Bobcats’ free throws, Crane made two of three tries.

“We just have to push,” said Crane. “We could beat them … fell short this time, but we’re going to get them next time.”

Denied a fourth straight win after hammering 2A Sargent 68-41 on the 14th out in the San Luis Valley, IHS will travel out to La Jara on the 24th to test scorching Centauri (12-0, 2-0), then host Montezuma-Cortez on the 28th. Results from the Bobcats’ 1/23 trip to Bayfield – beaten on the 18th at CHS, 50 to 39 – were unavailable at press time.

Prior to hosting Ignacio, the Wolverines (6-5, 1-1) were to face 2A Mancos (0-13, 0-4 3A/2A/1A San Juan Basin) in non-league play Tuesday night, January 21, with the outcome also unknown at press time.

STATS FROM SARGENT

In the aforementioned win at SHS, junior guard D.J. Hendren – unavailable against Pagosa Springs – scored 14 points after halftime and finished with a team-high 16. Valdez was right behind with 15, Crane (10) and senior Coty Webb (10) joined them in double figures, while senior Charley Pargin (nine points) came close.

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