ALAMOSA-Fearlessly diving headlong for several loose balls on a surface much less forgiving than any he'll land upon this spring, Anthony Manzanares couldn't help but show flashes of what IHS Baseball Coach Bert Miller can't wait to see him start catching grounders throughout the infield.
He'll have to wait another week or so.
Because with Manzanares' all-around hustle and 15 points, plus senior Wyatt Hayes' superhuman 18-point, 10-assist, 13-rebound, 8-steal effort leading the way, Bobcat Basketball again clinched a place in the CHSAA Class 2A State Championships. IHS a a 67-59 victory Saturday, March 5, over resilient Center in Region I final-round action at Adams State University.
"This.was fun to play, you know?" said Manzanares, a senior. "Both teams working so hard, and we both know it's our last-we were trying to make sure it wasn't!-so both were giving a good, 100-percent effort."
"You've got to give them credit," Hayes said. "They're a really good team, they're super fundamental.and they don't really get rattled; they stayed with it the whole game. So we kind of expected a close game, and I think it'll prepare us good!"
Having improved to 21-2 overall and re-seeded fifth in the decisive eight-team, double-elimination bracket, Ignacio faced #4 Holyoke (21-3) late Thursday night, concluding Day 1 inside CSU-Pueblo's Massari Arena, but results were unavailable by press time.
The winner meets either #1 Sanford-24-0 after beating Del Norte 79-51 for the regional's other state berth-or #8 Ellicott (18-4) tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the semifinals. The loser tests the SHS-EHS loser at 1:15 in the consolation semis, still trying for a fifth-place finish. The state championship is set for 7 p.m. tomorrow.
"It's great," said Manzanares. "I get to have another week with my seniors and my team, and also have another chance for Ignacio fans to go out there and support, have fun with us!"
Plenty of them traveled into the San Luis Valley last weekend, and after witnessing the 'Cats eliminate San Juan Basin League familiars Mancos 66-45 in a battle of the regional's 2- and 7-seeds (SHS was the #1) the previous evening, the loyalists were treated to an explosive opening against the #3 Vikings.
Given the start over senior forward Austin McCaw, sophomore guard Kruz Pardo responded by sinking two key three-pointers early, with the first putting Ignacio up 12-5 and the second immediately off-setting a three-point play by CHS senior Eddy Majalca to increase the advantage to 18-9 after one quarter.
"They'll come out and it gives you gaps to penetrate, gives you some post-up opportunities, so we were wanting to do that a little bit," head coach Chris Valdez said. "We were able to capitalize on that early in the game."
"We were pumped up at the beginning, kind of figured their 1-3-1 zone out," Hayes said.
A Hayes layup had IHS' lead up to 29-15 in the second quarter, and after Center senior guard Angel Villagomez gave the Vikings (19-5) hope with a trey, Bobcat senior guard Tucker Ward promptly responded with one of his own which could have, for all practical purposes, spelled doom for CHS.
But when Majalca managed to lob an inbounds pass perfectly to elevated forward Jonathan Moreno for a backdoor layup just before the halftime buzzer, not only did it re-ignite the team, but it confirmed what Center's coaches told the squad before taking the court for warm-ups: "They don't know what you guys are about to do."
Indeed, nobody in the building did as it appeared the only 'doing' was still being done by Ignacio.
Manzanares began the third quarter with a triple, senior center Nick Herrera followed with a cleanup of a Hayes miss, Ward dropped in a breakaway layup and Hayes canned a three before CHS junior forward Jorge Venzor sank one with 4:37 left. He'd book another six points before the stanza ended and Moreno five, but IHS maintained and re-increased their lead to 50-30 via four Hayes FT's in five tries.
"We come out in the second half.go gangbusters! We get up by 20 points," Valdez said, "and that's when their press came. We made a couple mistakes and we got shell-shocked a little bit."
"We panicked a little bit," admitted Hayes, "made some lazy passes, didn't play smart."
Scoring the last two points of the third quarter on an easy lay-in, then the first three of the fourth from long range, Venzor powered a 10-0 Viking run which trimmed the Bobcats' lead down to 50-40, and after McCaw sank two FT's, Venzor-who scored 15 of his 16 points after intermission-made one himself and Moreno cleaned up his teammate's missed second attempt to get CHS back within single-digits.
Incredibly Center would approach as close as five points-at 57-52, 62-57 and 64-59-before the SJBL champs got a breakaway layup from Herrera (ten points) and a FT from Ward (six) to ultimately decide the issue.
"We were sort of relaxed on defense," Manzanares said. "Once they started hitting their shots we had to come out and.had to talk through the whole thing. Communication was key for us."
"We gave them a couple of easy shots, a couple dumb fouls on shots, and all of a sudden we keep them in the game," said Valdez. "Gave them that last-second shot and instead of (being ahead by) 14 at halftime it's 12-and those little things.they hurt you."
"But to our credit we've got some seniors out there that gave some leadership, got together and said 'We're not going to lose this game!'"
Pardo finished with six points before fouling out with 6:06 left in the game. Junior reserve guard Joaquin King totaled five and McCaw four. Sophomore guard Johnny Valdez made three of six fourth-quarter FT attempts, giving Ignacio 12 vital bench points against Center's 17-all impressively registered by Moreno, a senior.
Majalca managed nine points and Villagomez eight for CHS in defeat, while senior Walter Martinez had six in limited minutes and senior Avel Martinez three.
"But in the end we got the win," said Hayes, who combined with Manzanares for five of the Bobcats' nine three-pointers. "It's awesome. I love the State Tournament, love the atmosphere, love going up there with my team, my coaches.it's a fun trip. Like a reward at the end of the season, but we've still got business to do."
CLASS 2A-REGION I TOURNAMENT, FINAL NO. 1
(March 5, 2016, at Adams State University's Plachy Hall)
#3 Center 59, at #2 Ignacio 67:
CHS (9-11-17-22) 59-A.Villagomez 3 1-2 8, E.Majalca 2 5-5 9, W.Martinez 2 0-0 6, J.Venzor 4 6-9 16, A.Martinez 1 1-3 3, J.Moreno 7 3-4 17, O.Venzor 0 0-0 0, S.Cook 0 0-0 0, A.Ruiz 0 0-0 0, H.Salazar 0 0-0 0, R.Velez 0 0-0 0, K.Vance 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 16-23 59. 3-POINTERS: W.Martinez 2, Villagomez, J.Venzor 2. TOTAL FOULS: 21. FOULED OUT: None.
IHS (18-14-18-17) 67-A.Manzanares 4 4-4 15, W.Hayes 5 6-12 18, T.Ward 2 1-2 6, K.Pardo 2 0-0 6, N.Herrera 5 0-2 10, A.McCaw 1 2-2 4, J.King 2 0-0 5, J.Valdez 0 3-6 3, C.McCaw 0 0-0 0, L.Valdez 0 0-0 0, C.Sanchez 0 0-0 0, K.Roubideaux 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 16-28 67. 3-POINTERS: Manzanares 3, Pardo 2, King, Ward, Hayes 2. TOTAL FOULS: 19. FOULED OUT: Pardo (6:06 left, Q4).
