CORTEZ – Montezuma-Cortez’s boys basketball team honored its seniors by beating Ignacio 64-50 at home on Tuesday.
Early in the first quarter, Bobcat senior Lincoln Gillespie had nailed a three putting Ignacio up 5-4 and junior Trace Crane later stepped out to sink one himself for a 14-12 advantage with 2:11 remaining.
And after Ignacio managed to wipe out a 26-20 deficit – produced by M-CHS sophomore guard Trey Hall converting a three-point play after Crane fouled him on a successful take to the hoop – during the last 3:23 before halftime, the hosting Panthers had seen enough to know only something incredible would subdue the ’Cats.
M-CHS guard Caidin Leonard – properly honored on senior night along with guard Tay Wheat and forward/center Ridge Hathale – began the third quarter bulls-eyeing a three, but Pargin quickly answered with a putback deuce, retying the score at 31-all. He soon added another bucket, but Montezuma-Cortez augmented a 37-33 lead with back-to-back scoring lobs to the high-flying Hall.
Junior guard Trace Hartsoe then had the opportunity to increase the lead to 10 points, but instead of finishing a breakaway himself, he decided to drop the ball off to a trailing Hall, who made no mistake.
“Trey, he’s all-around; he can score, can play good D, and he’s getting really good at protecting the rim and rebounding,” said M-CHS head coach Michael Hall. “Between him and Tay, and if Caidin knocks down a couple threes …. It’s just that ‘spark’ and our boys (catch) fire off that.”
The Panthers continued pouring proverbial petrol onto their incendiary third quarter. Hartsoe contributed four points, junior Jaris McDonald came off the bench to chip in two, and Leonard capped it all off with his third (and fourth total) triple – giving Montezuma-Cortez 25-4 ownership of the third quarter and a 53-33 cushion in the contest.
“I’m really proud of my boys; they busted their butt, had the best attitude and the best effort,” IHS head coach Trae Seibel said. “We’re the smallest school in this league … and we’re hanging with every single team that’s way bigger than us. Our boys are battling, and today the third quarter just got away from us. But if we lock up a little bit better….”
The ’Cats closed the gap to 57-45 with 4:07 left via a Burcham 3-point play. That gave Ignacio a 12-4 lead in the quarter, but M-CHS needed to do little more down the stretch than kill time and book the occasional basket, keeping the Bobcats at a safe distance.
“That’s what Senior Night’s about; you hope you can put yourself in that position to be able to do that, and we were able to,” Michael Hall said, recollecting his seniors’ respective exits to roaring applause. “Ridge, Caidin and Tay, they built this. They truly have. After COVID, things were kind of out of whack, and … this whole time they built the program back up – and now we’re packing the stands again and winning games! Those boys, they deserve a lot of credit; that’s why I did their curtain calls.”
Leonard logged 14 points, Hartsoe 11 and Wheat 10 for Montezuma-Cortez (16-5 overall, 8-2 IML).
Pargin finished with a solid 15 for Ignacio (9-11, 2-7).
IHS hosts Alamosa (3-17, 1-8) Friday night and Monte Vista the next evening.
