La Plata County is set for one of the biggest weekends of high school basketball in a long time.
Durango High School’s boys and girls teams each earned byes in the opening round of the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A State Tournament. After learning their opponents, the No. 16 girls (16-7) are set to tip off the second round at 7 p.m. Friday against Thompson Valley, while the No. 4 boys will welcome No. 29 Elizabeth for the first of potentially three home tournament games for the 20-win Demons.
Advance ticket information for this week’s Durango High School games has not been made available to The Durango Herald.
No. 48 Thompson Valley (9-15) won its girls first-round game in an upset at No. 17 Montrose, 50-48. The winner of the game at 7 p.m. Friday will likely face No. 1 Pueblo South in the Sweet 16. Pueblo South will play host to No. 32 Littleton on Friday.
No. 29 Elizabeth (12-12) played at home in front of a good crowd Wednesday night and took down No. 36 Niwot 73-69 to advance to the second round in Durango. The winner of Saturday’s game will face the winner of No. 13 Evergreen and No. 20 Fort Morgan. If Durango (20-3) wins, it would host the Sweet 16 game March 1st.
Meanwhile, Bayfield and Ignacio have league tournament games of their own to play this weekend. Bayfield is hosting the Class 3A Intermountain League tournament, while Ignacio will travel to Cortez to play in the 2A San Juan Basin League district tournament.
The BHS girls fell 61-46 in the pigtail game at Monte Vista on Tuesday night and were eliminated. The Wolverines finished the year with a 6-14 overall record.
The Bayfield boys will welcome Centauri in the IML semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Friday. In the other semifinal, top-seed Alamosa will face Pagosa Springs at 5 p.m. in Bayfield. BHS (13-6) and Alamosa (17-2) were co-league champions, with the Mean Moose taking the top seed via tiebreaker. The two appear to be on a collision course for a league rubber-match in the tournament final Saturday.
BHS hasn’t reached the finals of the tournament since 2006 when it lost to Pagosa Springs and hasn’t won the league tournament since 1992 when it competed in the San Juan Basin League tournament in Durango. BHS was nearly upset by Nucla in that game, who had a strong performance from Ryan Farmer, father of current BHS sophomore guard Hayden Farmer.
BHS and Alamosa have met 17 times since 2009, with Alamosa claiming 14 wins. BHS hasn’t hosted the tournament since 2013, when Alamosa won and BHS finished fourth.
The Ignacio boys (13-6) claimed the regular season league title by two games and are the top seed in the SJBL tournament in Cortez.
IHS will face Dolores at 6 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. Ignacio’s girls (13-6) are also in the semifinals and will play at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Ridgway.
It’s a big weekend for hoops, so make plans to attend the gym of your favorite team and support these great programs.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
