The Ignacio High School boys basketball team had to earn its first 3A/4A Intermountain League victory this winter, even with opposing Monte Vista minus senior star Azariah Hurtado, but the Bobcats did enough for the 53-47 upset win.
When the fourth quarter Saturday evening inside IHS Gymnasium commenced, the visiting Pirates had pulled themselves level with the ’Cats at 39-39, shaking off 3A Ignacio’s 5-0 burst beginning the third as the Bobcats were looking to reestablish the 28-18 advantage they had at the end of the first half.
But after senior Sonny Flores began the final frame with a tie-breaking 2-pointer, Ignacio sophomore Atencio followed with his third trey in the game, increasing Ignacio’s edge to 44-39 with 6:22 left in regulation. Senior Trace Crane added another two points to the pad with a close-range basket, but Naranjo struck back with a triple and sophomore Manny Jiron followed with an inside basket assisted by senior Domyon Naranjo.
The Bobcats caught a major break not long after when Pirate senior guard Kelby Mondragon (11 points) fouled out with 4:09 remaining, but Atencio failed to sink either resulting free throw. Jiron then fouled out with 2:10 to go but IHS again failed to benefit on the scoreboard when Crane inexplicably missed a pair.
He would drain two with 56.4 seconds left, and Monte Vista head coach Jaime Hurtado used a timeout with 52.2 remaining and the Pirates trailing 48-44. Whatever was planned didn’t have the time to properly develop, and Domyon Naranjo fouled out with 0:42.9 left.
Red-hot in the early goings with seven of IHS’ 11 first-quarter points, Flores missed both awarded FTs and the Pirates yet again were not sufficiently sunk. That is, until Bobcat senior Rance Rathjen stole the ball back seconds after the guys in green had snagged the rebound after Flores’ second miss.
Rathjen then got the rock to junior guard Thunder Windy Boy, who was fouled. Able to make one of two tries from the sort-of-charitable stripe, Windy Boy more importantly expanded Ignacio’s lead to five points.
Monte Vista was without star Azariah Hurtado (who sprained an ankle during a 63-30 home loss the night before to 4A Montezuma-Cortez) and three other regulars disqualified and out of the mix, the Pirates couldn’t mount a desperation comeback, and the Bobcats made enough free throws to secure victory.
Crane (5-11 FT) finished with a game-high 17 points and Atencio (0-3 FT) ended up with 13.
The Bobcats ended up making just 12 of 26 free throws, while the Pirates (8-6 overall, 1-4 IML) knocked down nine of 10.
Ignacio (8-8, 1-5) will next travel on Saturday to 4A Pagosa Springs, then on Feb. 12 to 3A Bayfield.
