The road to the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 2A state championships in Pueblo runs through Fort Lewis College.
The Ignacio High School boys basketball team will host the Class 2A Region 3 tournament Friday and Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium on the campus of FLC.
The Bobcats will play Del Norte at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Rangley faces Sangre de Cristo at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the other regional semifinal.
The winners of those two games will play Saturday for a trip to state.
“It’s not a walk-through, that’s for darn sure,” IHS head coach Chris Valdez said. “There’s some hidden things there that people won’t know about.”
Del Norte (8-14) lost to Center in the Class 2A District 1 third-place game Saturday.
Hayden Bell leads the Tigers in scoring at 14.1 points per game while Kegan Leckler and Matt Mueller both score over nine points per contest.
Del Norte scores 46.2 points per game on 34 percent shooting from the field while turning the ball over 17.3 times per game.
“We haven’t seen them this year, but we have a tape on them that we’re going to go over this week,” Valdez said.
IHS (21-0), on the other hand, puts up 66.6 points per game with 18.1 assists per contest.
The Class 2A No.1-ranked Bobcats make 14.9 steals and 5.3 blocks per game.
As for the other side of the regional bracket, Sangre de Cristo lost to Sanford in the 2A District 1 championship game, and Rangely dropped the 2A District 5 third place game to West Grand.
“They’ve improved,” Valdez said of Sangre de Cristo. “They’re playing better and they’ve got a fantastic transfer kid from Alamosa that didn’t get to play the first half of the year. Their record doesn’t signify who they are.”
Ethan Caton, the transfer Valdez referred to, leads the Thunderbirds in scoring at 17.3 points per game while ranking second on the team in rebounding at 6.7 per contest.
Rangely finished third in the Western Slope League standings behind Paonia and Meeker, who are both still alive.
“They’re all pretty equal. It’s a strange, strange league up there,” Valdez said. “That’s a better team than they show being a four seed.”
The Bobcats have been here before, though.
All five members of the IHS starting unit have played in regional championship games before, and the seniors made it to the state tournament in their freshman season.
“They know what to expect. We know that teams are never going to give up,” Valdez said. “I think this year we’re a little more seasoned. It does us a great deal of good to have that experience.”
The Bobcats also know what it’s like to reach this stage and fail.
They’ve lost in the regional championship game the past two seasons after holding double-digit leads in both games.
Having a serious pro-Bobcat crowd could help IHS get over the hump.
“One thing that helps us on top of that is the girls got placed in the same regional,” Valdez said. “We’re not splitting our crowd. Everyone will be there to help the Bobcat teams.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
