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Ignacio boys basketball cruises by Ridgway

Ignacio gears up for Ouray next

The Ignacio High School boys basketball team welcomed the Ridgway Demons to Ignacio High School and used an explosive first half to take down the fellow 2A/1A San Juan League foes, 59-37 on Friday night.

Tucker Ward had 16 first-half points to help set the Ignacio (12-2, 7-0) tempo at a high pace, which wore down Ridgway (9-5, 5-3). The senior swingman drove the basket at will at times. Other times the son of Deedee and Dug Ward hit wide-open 3-point shots, going 2-of-3 from long range. The result was a game-high 20 points.

“They were just in man-to-man, so I felt like I could take them to the basket and felt like I was playing in attack mode,” Ward said.

The Bobcats outscored the Demons 24-8 in the first quarter, pushing up the floor and keeping the Demons off balance for most of the game. Many of those transition points came courtesy of Wyatt Hayes, who contributed 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Hayes finished 3-for-4 from 3-point range, and the Bobcats hit seven 3-point shots as a team.

“We were able to come out of the second half better than we did against Dolores and Mancos,” Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez said. “We had a decent lead and it fluctuated a little bit, but we held it. We held it by a combination of going inside and giving a little bit of pressure, but not giving (Ridgway) anything in transition off our press.”

Both Anthony Manzanares and Nicholas Herrera finished the game with seven points. Herrera also had eight rebounds and three blocks. Austin McCaw also had a good night defensively, finishing with nine rebounds.

Ignacio outrebounded Ridgway 25-12 and forced 11 turnovers on defense.

“Offensively, they didn’t click as much inside because (Ridgway) is really fast,” Valdez said. “I thought those guys did good at rebounding and playing good physical defense and help defense when we did get beat off the dribble, so I thought our big guys did great.”

Hasten Beamer led Ridgway with 13 points, and Grant Saville added six points and six rebounds. Beamer is 20th in state with 3.6 steals per game but had none Friday.

Friday night’s game was a good warm up to Saturday where Ignacio will welcome the second-place team in the division in Ouray (11-1, 4-1). The Trojans will have Ravi Inmon, who averages 16.4 points per game, and 6-foot-5 big man Caleb Preston, who leads Ouray with 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 3.0 blocks per game.

“This prepares us a lot because they beat Ridgway by four, so we know we can be better,” Valdez said. “They have a big athletic kid in the middle who can post up outside so he creates a little bit of a mismatch problem for us, but we’ll work on that and make sure the guys are ready.”

Tip-off for that game is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Ignacio High School.

jmentzer@durangoherald.com

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