IHS’ IML opener decided in last 10 ticks
Disheveled as one would expect an exhausted low-post player to look after a difficult game, Trace Crane’s face Saturday night, Jan. 17, was that of a player not distraught but still faulting himself for his team’s fate.
To be sure, he was replaying in his mind a missed finger-roll which would have regained Ignacio’s boys a 44-42 lead on visiting Pagosa Springs with barely 32 seconds left in regulation. Instead, the Pirates snatched the rebound away, called timeout with 0:31.3 to go, and went up by the aforementioned margin when senior Jeremiah Jones, taking a pass from classmate Creede Dozier, drove in for a backside layup.
Fouled on the shot by, ironically, Crane, Jones clanked the ‘and-one’ bonus free throw but PSHS caught a critical break when junior Duke Ketchum controlled the rebound, passed it out of danger and saw it end up in senior teammate Jayton Ross’ hands. Needing to stop the clock, IHS junior Thunder Windy Boy had no choice but foul Ross, and did so with 19.3 ticks remaining.
Ross, however, swished both resulting FTs – leaving the ’Cats needing something miraculous to steal victory upon their own court. Crane came through with a highlight-reel, mid-range fall-away jumper paralleling the baseline, bringing Ignacio back to 46-44 with 0:08.5 left, and timeout was called.
Needing to predict which Pirate would receive senior Ty Richey’s inbounds pass, Ignacio’s group guess was wrong.
“We kind of lined up in a ‘stack’ and had Creede run off to an open lane, and they saw that,” Richey recalled afterwards. “So they took Duke’s guy off … but it gave us an easy pass in.”
Catching the ball while unguarded, Ketchum stayed motionless until Bobcat senior Sonny Flores fouled him with 0:06 left. Able to ignore the home fans’ loudest razzing, Ketchum canned both FTs and rebuilt Pagosa Springs’ lead to 48-44. Running the risk of being called for a foul and giving IHS a chance at a tying four-point play, Jones nevertheless tried to … and narrowly succeeded in swatting Bobcat senior Rance Rathjen’s desperation three-pointer into Ignacio’s bench as time expired.
“This is a tough place to play. Coach Trae’s got them prepared, ready to go – did his homework; these guys battled because Ignacio’s a tough team,” said PSHS head coach Brandon Forster. “We really just had to find our composure – that’s something we’d talked a lot about this week, being composed when things get sped up – and that helped us out a lot.”
“We started off slow, but as a team we know that we’re better than that,” Richey said, referencing the 10-3 deficit facing the Pirates after the opening 5:43 of the first quarter, which PSHS didn’t erase until tying at 13-13 with 6:06 left in the second. “This was an amazing team win; we didn’t play our best – we’re not proud of that – but we stepped up.”
Pagosa Springs (4-7 overall, 2-0 3A/4A Intermountain) actually went up 17-13 late in the second quarter after a near-dunk two-pointer by Jones and a Ketchum fade-away jumper, but sophomore reserve Joseph Atencio drained a needed three-pointer with 2:21 left until halftime and sparked a surge which saw Ignacio (6-4, 0-1) go up 23-18 after Windy Boy completed a three-point play with 1:30 left and Flores banked in a reverse baseline layup, with Rathjen assisting on both buckets.
Baskets by Richey and Dozier, however, quickly chopped the Bobcats’ lead down to just a point, 23-22, at intermission. Crane got the third quarter underway with a confident hook shot, assisted by senior Stoney White Thunder-Lucero, and after Rathjen converted a Crane feed into a 27-22 advantage, the teams then traded the lead with PSHS coming out ahead and taking a 36-33 edge into the fourth and final frame.
Which began at a reduced pace; IHS’ fans started booing vehemently when the Pirates wasted roughly 45 seconds simply running and re-running a play – which didn’t fool or confuse the ’Cats – before Forster finally used a timeout with 4:26 left and Pagosa Springs up 39-35.
Nothing came of the pause, and Crane then rattled in a fade-away with 3:35 remaining. PSHS countered with a free throw, but Crane re-tied the score at 40-all with 1:30 remaining – then dropped a perfect back-door pass to a cutting Windy Boy, whose layup put the ’Cats – hoping to follow up on their 62-39 win over 2A Sargent two nights earlier – up 42-40 with 1:14 left.
But after another extended possession, the Pirates re-tied at 42 when Jones drove in for a back-door layup, assisted by Richey, with 0:42.8 remaining. Ignacio skipper Trae Seibel immediately burned a timeout, anticipating the last-second drama but unable to predict exactly how it would unfold.
Richey totaled 15 points to power PSHS (which went a collective 12-of-17 from the foul line), while Ketchum totaled nine and Jones eight. Ross ended up with seven, senior post Bode Hubbard five and Dozier four.
“We went from usually having a lot of turnovers to only having nine; that helped us out, being able to hold onto the ball, and finishing at the end,” Forster said.
Windy Boy ended up with ten points and White Thunder-Lucero six, via two first-quarter threes. Flores and Rathjen each logged four points and Atencio his trey, while Crane finished with a game-high 17 points.
“We put Jeremiah on him, to get a little bit of length, and we kind of cycled through different guys … that were a little bit quicker, maybe a little bit stronger,” Forster said, “but credit to him. Hard guy to guard; we were just trying to throw multiple things at him. Trace is a special player.”
Looking ahead, Ignacio will travel out to La Jara on Friday, Jan. 23, to continue league play at 3A Centauri. Results from the Bobcats’ IML clash with 3A Bayfield the previous night, as well as the team’s 1/20 visit from 2A Dolores (8-4 overall, 3-1 3A/2A/1A San Juan Basin) were unavailable at press time.