Montezuma-Cortez flipped the script in its Saturday matchup against Ignacio.
The Panthers took one on the chin in the third quarter Friday night against Durango to open the Four Corners Boys Basketball Tournament in Durango, but they learned their lesson. Cortez turned a one-point halftime lead into a 15-point advantage 8 minutes later en route to a 60-43 win.
Braden Keetch was unstoppable for the Panthers (3-5) with a game-high 16 points and 13 rebounds. Jared Engle added 14 for Cortez in the win.
“I was not happy at all with the pace to start the game,” Panthers head coach Michael Hall said. “I just couldn’t get the boys going after what was a tough loss (Friday) night. The response in the second half was fantastic, though.”
Ignacio (3-3) jumped out to a 5-1 lead but had trouble containing Keetch for the remainder of the first quarter. He was relentless on the glass with five rebounds and eight points in the first eight minutes.
The Panthers held a 13-9 lead after Keetch’s strong start, but Ignacio did well to work the center into foul trouble. With Keetch out of the game for the entire second quarter with two fouls, the Bobcats crawled back in and took the lead temporarily before heading to the locker room down a point at halftime.
That’s when the tables turned.
When the second half arrived and Keetch returned to action, the Panthers took command in a hurry. Cortez was 11-for-12 from the free-throw line in a third quarter in which the Panthers put together an 18-1 run that finally separated the two teams.
“We started committing silly fouls and had a couple technicals cost us,” Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez said. “We’ve got to just stop talking to the refs and be a more disciplined team. That was hard to recover from.”
For the second consecutive night, Johnny Valdez tried to bring his team back in the fourth quarter. Valdez had nine of his team-high 14 points in the final frame, and Ignacio cut the deficit to single-digits. Time ran out on the comeback, though.
Lawrence Duffin-Valdez added 11 points for Ignacio in the loss.
“I think these games will help us in the long run,” Coach Valdez said. “Going up against these big guys will give us some confidence. We won’t see many guys like the two bigs we faced the last two nights, so hopefully we gained a bit of confidence even though we lost a couple here.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
