The transitive property, at least, sides with the Bayfield High School boys basketball team ahead of the Wolverines’ first state tournament game in half a decade.
No. 28 BHS plays at No. 5 The Pinnacle at 6 p.m. Friday in Thornton.
The Timberwolves are 19-3 and have won 17 consecutive games.
Two of their three losses came at a tournament in Buena Vista that BHS (11-10) also attended.
One was to Buena Vista 72-63, who the Wolverines beat 74-65.
“As far as our psychological thought, we’re not going up there with this defeatist attitude, that’s for sure,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said. “I think the kids believe they can go play, and that’s the most important thing.”
Some of that belief comes from winning two out of their last three games after a disastrous Intermountain League campaign that saw the Wolverines only win one game before the conference tournament.
Illnesses, injuries and a suspension reduced BHS to a shadow of its full capability.
“We are a sick team since the second (IML) game of the year. I don’t know if people will understand how hard its been to help the kids through the sickness to do what they’ve done,” Lehnus said. “These kids are a little tougher than people realize.”
They’ll need to be tough once again, as some of the sickness has started to resurface recently.
Lehnus doesn’t expect that to keep any of his players out of the game.
“I think you’d have to strap them to the bed,” he said. “My thing is going to be I have no idea how they’ll be able to go until we hit game time. It’s going to be an up and down game. You just have to hope they have enough in them to play the game. I know them, and they will certainly give all they have.”
The Pinnacle, regular season and tournament champions of the Frontier League, won’t be easy to keep up with regardless of Bayfield’s health.
The Timberwolves average 70 points per game, good for third in Class 3A.
They accomplish that by shooting 53 percent from the floor and have four players averaging double figures.
“They love to push the ball. Our job is to contain that so they’re not getting easy buckets and do the very best to try and stop their primary desires on offense,” Lehnus said.
Senior Josh Brown leads them with 15.7 points per game, and 6-8 junior Jesus Martinez scores 12 per contest.
Martinez also leads the state of Colorado across all classifications in blocks per game with 5.7, which ranks in the top-20 nationally according to Maxpreps.com.
“On the offensive end against that bigness, we’ll move it around and create some space – keep them moving,” Lehnus said.
The Wolverines enter the game as a large underdog by most any measure.
Like every coach who has led a team in that position, Lehnus took all the pressure off the Wolverines.
“Would I have liked a higher seeding? Sure,” he said. “But we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
