Beginning their home opener Tuesday evening, Dec. 4, on an electrifying 11-0 run, there was no doubting the Ignacio girls wanted to present their fans with the intensity they'd shown in going 1-1 at the season-opening Limon Invitational just a couple days before.
Senior Tatum Majors finally got visiting Dolores on the IHS Gymnasium scoreboard with a pair of free throws, but with eight different players scoring and contributing to a stifling full-court man-to-man defense, the Bobcats forcibly held a 26-2 lead after eight minutes en route to a 63-8 victory.
"That pretty much did it in," said head coach Justa Whitt, of her team's overall early dominance. "I thought we were...going to get a little bit of pushback from them, but they just caved right away."
"I should have pulled the press off a little bit sooner, but they were so antsy, wanted to keep going," she noted, of her own players' desire to devastate. "So I gave them a few more minutes, pulled off halfway into the second, maybe."
According to stats tracked by Whitt's assistant coaches, IHS recorded 27 steals defensively en route to increasing their advantage to 41-6 at halftime and 54-6 through three quarters before Majors netted the Bears' last basket in the fourth.
All told, 11 Bobcats scored at least two points each, led by junior Makayla Howell's first-half nine. Sophomore guard Charlize Valdez also booked nine along with sophomore center/forward Shelcie Gosney, who also grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Jayden Brunson scored eight points and freshman Monika Lucero seven.
Senior center Morgaine Milligan and junior guard/forward Brenn Jeter each scored two points for DHS.
"Coming off that Limon game, they were so hyped from it because they really did well," Whitt said, referring to #10-ranked Ignacio's 45-35 loss to #2 Limon in the Invitational's championship. "Playing against that team, then coming in and playing against (Dolores), that's two totally different levels you've got going on."
"Even with working the ball around, we still scored that much more."
Up next, IHS (2-1, 1-0 2A/1A San Juan Basin) will travel to 4A Kirtland Central on Dec. 14 for a 5:30 p.m. start, then return to host 3A Cedaredge on Dec. 15 at 12 p.m.
Beginning their season Tuesday night in Farmington, the Bayfield girls got their 2018-19 season underway falling 75-44 to Navajo Prep.
"We were down by five or six at halftime," head coach Josh Kitchen said while on the team bus heading back to town, "and were really competitive. Honestly, towards the end of the game I think we ran out of steam. You know how (Navajo Prep) likes to push the tempo, eventually it started catching up with us, and in the last two, three minutes I think they put up 15 points on us. Hitting threes all over the place."
"But for a huge chunk of the game our girls played great! But we had a short bench-it caught up with us."
Kitchen said that senior guard Tymbree Florian scored almost 20 points, while sophomore center/forward Macee Schultz was "easily" in double-digit rebounding.
Up next, BHS (0-1, 0-0 3A Intermountain) will travel to the Dec. 7-8 Buena Vista Demon Invitational, where they will challenge Gunnison (1-2) at 5:30 p.m. on Day 1, then test Granby Middle Park at 1 p.m. on Day 2. Middle Park will go up against Parachute Grand Valley (3-0) on Day 1.
