BAYFIELD – For only the second time in school history and the first time in 69 years, the Bayfield High School boys basketball team took down La Plata County rival Durango High School.
The Wolverines (4-4) locked the Demons (2-8) down on defense and found openings for easy buckets to pick up a 63-33 victory during the Southwest Classic on Saturday at BHS.
“We’ve always said that Bayfield is next to Durango, and now we can start saying Durango is next to Bayfield,” BHS junior Hayden Farmer said of the historic win. “We’ve been proving ourselves. This group of kids we have is special. We all grew up together and we’ve always wanted to play Durango and be able to beat Durango, and this year it happened. It’s awesome.”
After a bit of a slow start in which neither team scored for the opening two-plus minutes of action, Bayfield took over and built an 18-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Wolverines kept the pressure on the Demons in the second quarter and outscored them 19-4 to build a 37-12 halftime lead.
“We went in with a game plan to slow the game down because we know Bayfield likes to get out on the break. But they did a good job with their defense and sped us up,” DHS head coach Alan Batiste said. “We forced some shots and ended up playing right into their game plan.”
The third quarter was a foul fest. Both teams were in the bonus with more than a minute remaining in the quarter, and Bayfield was in the double bonus before the end of the quarter. With the constant whistles stopping the action, both sides struggled to find a flow on offense.
“It was a lot better first half. The second half was OK,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said. “Our shot selection wasn’t good in the second half and there was a little impatience on offense. I was very pleased with the first half, but it was a very average second half.”
With the game all but decided, Durango subbed out its starters and played its reserved players for most of the fourth quarter. Bayfield followed suit and pushed its lead to as many as 33 points before everything was finished.
Five Wolverines scored nine or more points in the win. Keyon Prior led BHS with 13 points, Carl Heide and Ryan Phelps scored 10 each, and Farmer and Dax Snooks added nine apiece.
Lawrence Reed led Durango with nine points after he made three 3-pointers.
Jasen Engel couldn’t be stopped in the paint and scored a game-high 26 points to propel the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers to a 62-51 victory against Ignacio High School at the Southwest Classic in Bayfield.
“Jasen is so physical and strong he causes a lot of mismatches,” Panthers head coach Michael Hall said. “When he’s on like that, he’s hard to stop, and when he gets the ball in the post like that he’s aggressive to the basket and he’s a good player down there.”
Friday night’s grueling game against Bayfield affected the Bobcats (4-3), who started the game in a fog and struggled to find a rhythm on offense.
“We talked about how after a big game, win or lose, you put a lot of emotion into it, but if you think about it, if you want to win district and regionals you’ve got to win two games in a row,” Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez said. “You have to be able to play those back-to-backs. I don’t care if we only have five or six legitimate varsity players, we’ve got to play at that level or we’re not going to win.”
Engel did most of the damage for the Panthers (5-3) in the paint with 21 points in the first half to help the Panthers to a 37-26 halftime lead.
The Bobcats cut the deficit to one point a couple of times in the third quarter but could never take the lead.
Cordell Baer finished with 13 points for the Panthers.
Johnny Valdez led Ignacio with 17 points, Lawrence Duffin-Valdez had 14 and Kai Roubideaux added 11.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
