Chris Valdez thought it would take crisp offensive execution and stout defense to get Ignacio High School into the CHSAA Class 2A Boys Basketball State Championships Great Eight.
He couldn’t have asked for much more from the Bobcats after their 49-20 win over Sangre de Cristo in the Class 2A Region 3 championship game Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium on the Fort Lewis College campus.
CHSAANow.com Class 2A No. 1 IHS (23-0) held the Thunderbirds to just six total field goals in the game and forced 21 turnovers.
Sangre de Cristo (15-9) only made one field goal in the second and third quarters combined while only scoring three points in those quarters.
“Most of the game they were the aggressive team offensively and defensively,” said Sangre de Cristo head coach Wade Mortensen, the former Montezuma-Cortez High School head coach. “If we want to compete at that level, we’ve got to learn from a team like Ignacio.”
The Bobcats made 17-of-43 field goals, including seven 3-pointers, and dished out 11 assists.
Clayton Jefferson led IHS with 14 points in the game. He made three consecutive 3-pointers coming out of halftime, after missing his first four from beyond the arc in the first half.
“I was shooting good in warmups, and I knew I was going to knock some down,” said Jefferson, son of Robert and Teena Jefferson. “The more you shoot, the more will go in.”
Six other Bobcats balanced the stat sheet with more than four points, including Wyatt Hayes and Adison Jones with six each.
“What we did was just open the floor and let our quickness find the holes in their defense,” Valdez said.
Valdez started sophomore Anthony Manzanares in place of Justin Carver to match Sangre de Cristo’s smaller lineup.
Manzanares scored four points, grabbed three rebounds and made two steals in the game while deflecting several other balls.
“We’ve always said he could start for this team,” Valdez said. “His first start was in the regional championship game, and he was fantastic.”
The victory gives IHS the Region 3 championship, the San Juan Basin League district championship and the SJBL regular-season championship, and it advances the Bobcats to the Great Eight in Pueblo for the first time since 2011.
The Bobcats lost in the regional championship game in each of the last two seasons after holding double-digit leads in both games.
“We were really hungry,” Jefferson said. “The last two years were hard on us, and we didn’t want it to happen again.”
CHSAA will release the brackets for the rest of the state tournament Sunday. Akron, Holyoke, Lutheran, Meeker, Sanford, Sedgwick County and Simla will join Ignacio – the only undefeated team in the field – next week at Massari Arena on the CSU-Pueblo campus. The state quarterfinals will begin Thursday, the semifinals Friday and the championship game Saturday.
“We can’t rest on our laurels. We can’t say, ‘We got the regional’ – heck with all that,” Valdez said. “It’s a new day. Everybody is 0-0 at the state tournament.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
Class 2A Region 3 Tournament
High School Basketball
Class 2A Region 3 Tournament
March 7-8 at Fort Lewis College
Semifinals
Friday, March 7
Ignacio 77, Del Norte 32
Sangre De Cristo 40, Rangely 34
Championship
Saturday, March 8
Ignacio 49, Sangre De Cristo 20
Great Eight
Akron (23-1)
Holyoke (16-8)
Ignacio (23-0)
Lutheran (18-6)
Meeker (17-6)
Sanford (23-1)
Segwick County (16-7)
Simla (22-2)
Girls High School
Basketball
Class 2A Region 3 Tournament
March 7-8 at Fort Lewis College
Semifinals
Friday, March 7
Ridgway 35, Sargent 30
Paonia 44, Ignacio 24
Championship
Saturday, March 8
Paonia 47, Ridgway 42
Great Eight
Akron (21-3)
Hoehne (23-1)
Lutheran (22-1)
Meeker (22-2)
Paonia (20-5)
Peyton (24-1)
Simla (20-4)
Yuma (23-1)
Durango Herald
