Rarely does Ignacio High School head coach Chris Valdez talk about San Juan League games in terms of winning or losing.
The No. 5 Bobcats simply don’t lose often once their league schedule begins.
Friday’s 8 p.m. showdown with Mancos, however, has Valdez slightly changing his tune.
“I think they’re our biggest challenge,” he said.
With good reason.
The Bluejays are 5-3 this season with losses to Class 2A No. 6 Meeker, Class 3A No. 8 Bayfield and Center.
They feature the conference’s second leading scorer in Ro Paschal, a 6-foot-3 center averaging 18.7 points per game.
“He’s great around the block, but he’s not a great shooter. If we can make him a jump shooter, that would be great,” Valdez said. “We’re going to look to keep him from getting the ball – pressure the ball to stop them from getting it to him.”
The Bobcats feature one of the best point guards in the state at that particular skill.
Junior Wyatt Hayes averages 5.4 steals per game, which leads 2A and ranks fifth in the state across all classifications.
He and fellow guards Anthony Manzanares and Tucker Ward will have to deal with seniors Nigel Henry (13 points per game) and Jayden Peacock (10.3 ppg).
“I think our guard play is better than theirs, even though their guard play is pretty good,” Valdez said.
After the Bluejays, IHS will face a surprising Telluride team.
Surprising because the Miners lost six seniors off of last year’s 16-6 squad but beat Class 1A No. 3 Ouray in their last game.
“That is a surprise to us because we didn’t think Telluride had much of anything,” Valdez said. “Maybe Ouray didn’t play anyone (good).”
Telluride (4-2, 2-0 SJL) does have three players that average double figure scoring led by senior Wilder Hanley’s 15 per game.
“The fact of the matter is Telluride has been a powerhouse in this league right behind us,” Valdez said. “But we’re Ignacio. We’re in the top 10 every year. We’re going to get everybody’s best game. We can’t take a day off. If we let them stay in the game, they will gain momentum and think they can beat us. We’ve got to jump out at the beginning of these games and show them what we have and not hold back.”
That’s been Ignacio’s formula: Jump out to a big lead with starters and let the bench players mop up the end of blowouts.
It may be a necessity this season with how little experience IHS (6-2, 2-0 SJL) has on its bench.
“We’ve got two or three kids we’ve got an eye on that we really think that can help us at this level. Our kids on the bench, their idea is to get off the bench, don’t make mistakes and take the shots that are given to you,” Valdez said. “This league time is time to get them in the game so they can play that role down the stretch.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
