BAYFIELD – It was the biggest basketball game in Bayfield in at least three years. The teams and fans lived up to the hype.
In what was essentially the Class 3A Intermountain League championship game, the Bayfield High School boys basketball team welcomed fourth-ranked Alamosa High School to Wolverines Gymnasium. After losing 56-40 at Alamosa a few weeks earlier, the Wolverines needed to win by 17 to win the league championship. BHS led by 17 going into the fourth quarter, but Alamosa’s Noah Romero erased that deficit by himself.
Still, BHS made enough free throws and came up with enough stops to secure a 65-62 victory.
“I’m really happy for our community,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said. “We had a wonderful crowd. Don’t kid yourself, there’s something to that energy. One of the goals I had when I came back three years ago was to put basketball back on the map for Bayfield. I wanted to get people enjoying it and in the stands. I’m happy for everybody tonight. It’s a wonderful experience, yet we’re capable of more.”
BHS (12-6, 8-1 IML) led 49-32 going into the fourth quarter. But Romero scored 17 points in the fourth to will the Mean Moose (16-2, 8-1 IML) back into the game. It got as close as 57-56 with 1 minute, 38 seconds to play after a layup by Angelo Ramirez, but consecutive layups by Hayden Farmer and Brian Mashak restored the BHS lead to 61-56 with 1 minute to play.
But Alamosa star Ryan Brubacher buried a 3-pointer on the other end to again make it a one-score game. Dax Snooks made a pair of free throws for Bayfield, and a steal by Ryan Phelps on the other end gave BHS the ball back. Keyon Prior made two more free throws to extend the Bayfield lead to 65-59, but Romero made a huge 3-pointer to keep it a three-point game with 11.3 seconds to play.
Farmer was immediately fouled by Alamosa after BHS inbounded the ball. He missed both free throws, and Romero raced the ball up the floor. But Prior was right there with a hand in Romero’s face and forced the shot to go long. Phelps collected his 17th and final rebound of the game to secure the victory.
“I’m really proud of the way we played in the fourth,” Alamosa head coach Brandon Brubacher said. “Hats off to Bayfield. They played really well. They shot well the first three quarters and defended well.”
Phelps was a force for BHS with 14 points and 17 rebounds to go with three steals and two blocks. Mashak had a senior night to remember with 11 points, all in the second half. “It’s huge on senior night when your only senior shows out like that,” Phelps said. “He did everything he needed to do and played a great game.”
Romero wasn’t on the Bayfield scouting sheet. The Wolverines’ focus was on slowing Ryan Brubacher, who scored 27 points in the previous matchup. Friday, BHS held him to 15 points, five below his season average. But Romero poured in 22 points, and he’ll certainly be on the minds of the BHS players and coaches before the teams potentially meet again in two weeks in the league tournament, which will be played in Bayfield.
Prior finished with 14 points, as did Phelps, who brought the crowd to its feet with 10 points in the first quarter, including a big dunk from standing under the basket.
“It was ridiculous how much it meant to us,” Phelps said of the game. “We knew we could do it, and we came out fired up.”
Alamosa, the state runner-up from a year ago, likely clinched the IML regular season title with the win. BHS will play at Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday in the final game of the regular season.
“We’ll use this as motivation,” Coach Brubacher said. “We’ve had a good run here for 16 games in a row. That’s tough. We came to the toughest place in the league to play in Bayfield against a good team, and they beat us.”
Steven Wyman scored 17 points, Kyle Kirkpatrick added 14 and the Durango Demons picked up a key Class 4A/5A Southwestern League win against Grand Junction on Friday in Durango.
DHS (16-3, 3-2 SWL) maintained a decent lead the majority of the second half and pulled away down the stretch. It was the first league loss of the year for the Tigers (11-8, 4-1 SWL).
“They kept coming close, but we kept that 10-point lead all game,” DHS head coach Alan Batiste said. “We set the tempo and got the stops we needed when they would get close.”
Batiste singled out the play of Javier Quezada, who had five points, for helping push the Demons to the victory.
“Great game from him to help us out,” Batiste said.
DHS has another big test Saturday at home against Fruita Monument. DHS hopes to set up a league championship game scenario with Grand Junction down the line but has to take care of Fruita nd Montrose, first. “This was a huge win,” Batiste said. “We control our destiny in this league. Beating Junction is a confidence-booster, but we are 0-for-2 in the second game of back-to-backs, so we gotta be better against Fruita.”
Girls Basketball
Girls BasketballDurango dominated from start to finish in Friday’s home game against Grand Junction.
The Demons were led by a hot start from Stephanie Basye and rolled to a 53-23 win over the Tigers (4-14, 1-4 5A/4A Southwestern League).
Hilda Garcia led Durango (13-7, 3-2 5A/4A Southwestern League) with 11 points, while Katrina Chandler and Taylor Edwards added 10. “It was just a well-rounded game for us,” Durango High School girls basketball head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I feel like Hilda is getting more and more comfortable with this team, and we had some good contributions from everyone.”
Jordan Baker had eight points and made a couple big 3-pointers in the win. The Demons will play Fruita Monument at noon Saturday.
The continued improvement of the Bayfield High School girls basketball team was on display Friday, even in a loss.
The Wolverines carried a 21-all tie into halftime with the Alamosa Mean Moose. Alamosa showed its strength in the third quarter to the tune of a 17-7 advantage, and that’s all it needed to secure an Intermountain League win at Bayfield.
Jesica Archuleta-Trujillo scored a game-high 10 points for the Moose (7-10, 4-5 IML), while Bayfield (5-13, 1-8 IML) was led by Kyle Baker and Savannah Kaufmann, who each scored eight. Courtney Bayles added seven points in the loss.
The Wolverines have one regular season game remaining Tuesday at Montezuma-Cortez.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
