RIO GRANDE COUNTY – When Ignacio head coach Trae Seibel and Monte Vista counterpart Jaime Hurtado seemingly agreed to empty their respective benches for the last two minutes Thursday night, the Bobcat and Pirate reserves did their best to not let the gymnasium’s energy dissipate even after a razzle-dazzle, 180-degree, two-handed reverse dunk by Monte Vista senior guard/forward Azariah ‘Raz’ Hurtado.
However, the game was out of reach for the visiting Bobcats, as they lost their regular-season finale, 60-41. The difference in the game was the second quarter.
After striking first via a basket by senior center/forward Trace Crane and later regaining a 5-4 lead – the Bobcats’ last, via senior guard Stoney White Thunder-Lucero’s 3-pointer with 2:06 left in the first frame, Ignacio got a free, well-earned breather when Monte Vista boss Hurtado called timeout.
Pirate sophomore forward/center Landon Sanchez, however, promptly canned a corner three and senior guard/forward Domyon Naranjo closed out the quarter with a pair of free throws, giving MVHS a 9-5 edge through eight tense minutes on Senior/Parent Appreciation Night. Sanchez and Hurtado then combined to start the second quarter sinking three of four FTs before IHS senior guard Sonny Flores hit one of two with 6:07 left until halftime.
Flores, however, then picked up his third personal foul with 5:30 left and senior forward Rance Rathjen did likewise only six seconds later, infuriating Bobcat backers in the building and pressing Seibel to go deeper into his bench much earlier than he’d have liked. After Sanchez hit one of two FTs, senior guard Kelby Mondragon followed with a take to the hoop increasing Monte Vista’s lead to 16-6.
As one hoop’s diameter seemed to shrink whenever the ’Cats took aim, the other’s seemed to widen; a corner trey by junior reserve guard Connor Mellott punctuated a game-breaking 14-5 stretch and inflated the Pirates’ lead to 30-11. As the quarter expired, junior backup forward Jeremiah McComas stole junior guard Thunder Windy Boy’s high-bouncing dribble near midcourt and hurried it to the opposite end for a buzzer-beating layup giving MVHS an imposing 32-14 lead at intermission.
A Mondragon deuce plus two Hurtado FTs then offset a Crane basket beginning the third quarter, but the Bobcats responded by outscoring the Pirates 9-3 to cut the deficit down to 39-25, after sophomore guard Joseph Atencio’s corner three with 2:21 to go.
Monte Vista countered with an 8-0 burst capped by another McComas close-range buzzer-beater, the end product of an inbounds pass from the baseline after Crane was called for his fourth personal foul with 0:01.8 left on the clock in the third.
Trailing 47-25 entering the fourth quarter, despite three consecutive, aggressive Windy Boy takes to the rim, the ’Cats then closed out the contest winning the frame 16-13.
Hurtado, honored before the game for passing the 1,000-point mark for his MVHS career, had a game-high 14 points. Sanchez (8-12 FT) ended up with 11.
Crane (2-4 FT) totaled 13 points in defeat and Windy Boy (2-4 FT) 10.
While Monte Vista (12-10 overall, 5-7 IML) stayed a virtual lock for inclusion in the upcoming 3A state tournament’s opening round of 32, having begun the game as the No. 26 team in CHSAA’s Selection & Seeding Index, No. 36 Ignacio (9-13, 2-10) was on the bubble and would need a miracle to get in.
