Floating on a late-season winning streak, the Bayfield High School boys basketball team will take on a familiar foe in the Class 3A Colorado High School Activities Association Intermountain District Tournament.
Bayfield (10-9) received a No. 3 seed and will face No. 2 Pagosa Springs (12-7) at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Centauri High School.
Heading into postseason play, the Wolverines have won three games in a row, including a win over the Pirates.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” Bayfield head coach Jeff Lehnus said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I don’t suspect that they’ll move away from their strengths. I can see them adjust to our offense. I see a chess match of sorts.”
For the third time this season, the two rival teams will meet. In the regular season, Bayfield split its series with the Pirates.
Pagosa Springs win game one, 52-40, at Bayfield High School on Jan. 29. The Wolverines got revenge by taking down the Pirates on Feb. 16 with a 49-48 overtime win.
In the first meeting, sophomore Ryan Phelps led the Wolverines with 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks. Bayfield couldn’t match up with the combination of Briar Erskine and Craig Tamburelli, who both had 13 points in the contest.
The second game was much more kind to the Wolverines as they came through down the stretch to win an overtime thriller.
Free throws were huge in that game, with Bayfield nailing 16-for-19 from the charity stripe with the game on the line.
In the past, the Wolverines’ free throw shooting has been the bane of the Bayfield offense, so if the Wolverines wants to advance, they’ll have to hit their free throws.
“With time and experience, we’re capable of shooting well,” said Lehnus. “If we don’t make free throws like the last time (we played Pagosa Springs), then we don’t win. We want to make the other team pay for fouling us.”
Phelps had a huge game in their second meeting, pouring in 21 points and four rebounds. Phelps is Bayfield’s leading rebounder with eight per game.
Erskine had 16 points and nine rebounds for Pagosa Springs in that game. Erskine averages 16.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, and Ty Kimsey averages 4.2 assists per game.
“It’s not stopping Erskine, but containing him,” said Lehnus.
Senior leading scorer Taed Heydinger was well below his 13.5 points per game average by getting only five points, but pulled down eight rebounds in the second game.
Bayfield’s Zane Phelps will need to be huge in this game, as his size and strength will be needed down low. Phelps is averaging 10.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
Rebounding will be the key if Bayfield wants to survive. In fact, the Wolverines are averaging 34.7 rebounds, while the Pirates have just 25.4 per game.
Bayfield also leads with 9.9 steals to Pagosa Springs’ 7.4 per game.
“I expect them to come out and do whatever it takes,” said Lehnus.
The No. 1-seeded Alamosa Mean Moose (15-4) will await the winner of No. 4 Monte Vista (6-13) and No. 5 Centauri (3-14) in the play-in game, which will be played Tuesday at Monte Vista.
The winner of Bayfield and Pagosa Springs will most likely meet Alamosa in the championship round, which will be played on Feb. 27 at Centauri High School. Both Bayfield and Pagosa Springs have lost twice to Alamosa in the regular season.
No. 6 Bayfield girls take on No. 3 Monte Vista in first round
The Bayfield High School girls basketball team received a No. 6 seed in the Class 3A CHSAA Intermountain District Tournament, and will play the No. 3 seeded Monte Vista Pirates.
Bayfield (4-15) will do its best to pull off the upset, but that will be a tough task for the young Wolverines.
Monte Vista (14-5) closed out its season on a 7-2 run, with losses coming from Centauri and Pagosa Springs.
The Pirates won both meetings against the Wolverines in the regular season.
In game one, Monte Vista won 71-35 at Bayfield High School.
Mariah Barbosa had 16 points for the Pirates and freshman Tymbree Florian had 10 for the Wolverines.
In the second meeting, Monte Vista won 56-44. Barbosa had another good game by getting 19 points.
Sophomore Courtney Bayles had a monster game with 16 points and eight rebounds.
The Wolverines will rely on Bayles against the Pirates if Bayfield wants the win.
Bayles leads the Wolverines with 7.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
On Monte Vista’s side, the Pirates are led by Terrise Sanchez, who is averaging 10.5 points per game.
The winner between Bayfield and Monte Vista will go on to play No. 2 Centauri (16-3) in the second round.
The top seed was awarded to Pagosa Springs (19-0) which will await the winner between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, which went to Alamosa (7-12) and Montezuma-Cortez (8-11), respecitvely.
jmentzer@ durangoherald.com
