Even an improbable buzzer-beating, bank-shot three-pointer - tying the score at the end of the fourth quarter - by exhausted freshman Morgan Herrera couldn't generate enough momentum to gain the Ignacio girls a non-league win last Thursday.
"What a game!" head coach Shane Seibel said after the 57-53 loss to 2A Sargent, in which neither side led by more than four points at any time, and in which a total of six players fouled out. "Once we get on the right side of a few of those, we'll be all right!"
"It was exciting," agreed Herrera, who would eventually finish with 18 points and an unofficial 22 boards in only the third game of her young high-school career. "The design, was where I came around (a screen) to shoot that three and try to get a foul out of that. But they didn't foul me, so I just went right up and shot it! I was 'thinking' nothing."
With junior Avionne Gomez having netted 15 points and senior Alejandra Lujan and freshman Larissa Gallegos nine each in defeat, IHS went into their next game thinking one thing: Victory.
And against traditional 2A/1A San Juan Basin League power Norwood, the Bobcats achieved it.
Herrera made 16 points and Gomez booked 10, but the 46-37 home win didn't come easily. Ignacio (5-3, 3-0 SJBL) trailed 14-8 after one quarter and 19-14 through two before the Mavericks suddenly went ice-cold from the field in the third, scoring only three scattered points.
Herrera, meanwhile, bulled inside for eight, Gomez and sophomore Kiana Valdez each sank a three and the stanza ended with the home team ahead 30-22. Hoping to salvage a win, NHS began pressing and working for free-throw attempts in the fourth, and the plan worked somewhat.
Norwood went to the charity stripe 17 times during the closing eight minutes, making 11, but even with both Valdez and Gallegos fouling out, and Herrera and Lujan each finishing with four personals, time would expire too quickly for the visitors as IHS got four points in the fourth from Gomez, Lujan and freshman Makayla Howell.
Having at last returned from concussion protocol, stemming from a collision in the final seconds of the Bobcats' loss at 3A Bayfield, Howell finished with five points. Lujan recorded six, Gallegos four, Valdez three and senior Rachel Cooper two.
Senior Amber Padgett led NHS with 13 points and junior Cortney Lemon logged 11.
Up next, the Mavericks, now 8-3 overall after recovering with a 47-38 win Tuesday over Nucla (5-7), are slated to visit Mancos Friday. Mancos (2-7) was to host IHS Tuesday, but due to wintry weather and deteriorating road conditions, the meeting was postponed.
On Friday, the 'Cats are scheduled to travel to Ridgway, a game postponed Jan. 14 at the start of the southwest's previous snowstorm, to be followed by last weekend's more widespread whiting-out, then visit Nucla Saturday. The MHS trip has been tentatively relisted for Tuesday, Jan. 31.
