Disheveled as one would expect an exhausted low-post player to look after a difficult game, Trace Crane’s face Saturday night was that of a player not distraught but still faulting himself for his team’s fate as the Ignacio boys basketball team lost to Pagosa Springs, 48-44.
To be sure, he was replaying in his mind a missed finger-roll which would have regained Ignacio a 44-42 lead on visiting Pagosa Springs with barely 32 seconds left in regulation. Instead, the Pirates snatched the rebound away, called a timeout with 0:31.3 to go, and went up by the aforementioned margin when senior Jeremiah Jones, taking a pass from classmate Creede Dozier, drove in for a backside layup.
Fouled on the shot by Crane, Jones clanked the ‘and-one’ bonus free throw, but PSHS caught a critical break when junior Duke Ketchum controlled the rebound, passed it out of danger and saw it end up in senior teammate Jayton Ross’ hands. Needing to stop the clock, IHS junior Thunder Windy Boy had no choice but foul Ross, and did so with 19.3 ticks remaining.
Ross, however, swished both resulting FTs – leaving the ’Cats needing something miraculous to steal victory upon their own court. Crane came through with a highlight-reel, mid-range fall-away jumper paralleling the baseline, bringing Ignacio back to 46-44 with 0:08.5 left, and timeout was called.
Needing to predict which Pirate would receive senior Ty Richey’s inbounds pass, Ignacio’s group guess was wrong.
“We kind of lined up in a ‘stack’ and had Creede run off to an open lane, and they saw that,” Richey recalled afterward. “So they took Duke’s guy off … but it gave us an easy pass in.”
Catching the ball while unguarded, Ketchum was fouled and canned both FTs and rebuilt Pagosa Springs’ lead to 48-44. Running the risk of being called for a foul and giving IHS a chance at a tying four-point play, Jones nevertheless tried to … and narrowly succeeded in swatting Bobcat senior Rance Rathjen’s desperation three-pointer into Ignacio’s bench as time expired.
“This is a tough place to play. Coach Trae’s got them prepared, ready to go – did his homework; these guys battled because Ignacio’s a tough team,” said PSHS head coach Brandon Forster. “We really just had to find our composure. That’s something we’d talked a lot about this week, being composed when things get sped up – and that helped us out a lot.”
Pagosa Springs (4-7 overall, 2-0 3A/4A Intermountain) actually went up 17-13 late in the second quarter after a near-dunk by Jones and a Ketchum fade-away jumper, but sophomore reserve Joseph Atencio drained a needed 3-pointer with 2:21 left until halftime and sparked a surge which saw Ignacio (6-4, 0-1) go up 23-18 after Windy Boy completed a three-point play with 1:30 left and Flores banked in a reverse baseline layup, with Rathjen assisting on both buckets.
Baskets by Richey and Dozier, however, quickly chopped the Bobcats’ lead down to just a point, 23-22, at intermission. Crane got the third quarter underway with a confident hook shot, assisted by senior Stoney White Thunder-Lucero, and after Rathjen converted a Crane feed into a 27-22 advantage, the teams then traded the lead with PSHS coming out ahead and taking a 36-33 edge into the fourth and final frame.
IHS’ fans started booing vehemently when the Pirates wasted roughly 45 seconds early in the fourth simply running and rerunning a play, which didn’t fool or confuse the ’Cats, before Forster finally used a timeout with 4:26 left and Pagosa Springs up 39-35.
Nothing came of the pause, and Crane then rattled in a fade-away with 3:35 remaining. PSHS countered with a free throw, but Crane re-tied the score at 40-all with 1:30 remaining – then dropped a perfect back-door pass to a cutting Windy Boy, whose layup put the ’Cats – hoping to follow up on their 62-39 win over 2A Sargent two nights earlier – up 42-40 with 1:14 left.
But after another extended possession, the Pirates re-tied at 42 when Jones drove in for a back-door layup, setting up the last-second drama.
Richey totaled 15 points to power PSHS, while Ketchum totaled nine.
Crane finished with a game-high 17 points, and Windy Boy ended up with 10 points.
Ignacio will continue league play Thursday night against 3A Bayfield, before traveling out to La Jara on Friday to play at 3A Centauri.
