Braelyn Tucker’s first two 3-pointers Tuesday afternoon didn’t terribly hurt the Ignacio girls.
The Centauri senior guard’s second two treys, however, highlighted a second quarter in which the visiting Lady Falcons blanked the home team 17 to 0 – turning what had been a slim 12-8 advantage through the opening eight minutes into a comfortable 21-point pad through 16 minutes inside a hushed IHS Gymnasium. Centauri cruised to a 52-22 win.
Though Tucker didn’t score for the rest of the 3A/4A Intermountain League contest (rescheduled from Valentine’s Day), her teammates actually increased CHS’ pace during the third quarter, with threes by sophomore reserve Harper Russell and freshman backup Lyndie Sowards helping the visitors swell their lead to 47-13 entering the final frame.
Junior Juliann Avila got the Bobcats restarted with a quick layup, and IHS clipped the La Jara ladies’ lead down to 49-19 via a jumper in the lane by senior Marissa Olguin, but depth-blessed Centauri needed to do little more than remain on the court the rest of the way.
“We start every game the same; it doesn’t matter who we play, the goal is always the same: Come out fast and just try to be fundamentally sound,” CHS head coach Jeremy Romero said. “Again, it doesn’t matter who we play; the game plan’s always the same. As we go along, if we need to adjust then we can do that; we have a lot of younger kids coming up so we’re trying to get everybody in the rotation, get some chemistry and get everybody involved.”
Early on, however, the intensity wasn’t lacking – particularly after Centauri (19-3 overall, 10-1 IML) saw an early 9-2 advantage erode down to just four points by the end of the first quarter as Avila, Olguin, senior Victoria Brown and senior DaLaney Wesner each booked one bucket for Ignacio (8-14, 4-8).
But if that comeback was a carryover from a 28-27 home win over Monte Vista just three days earlier, it lost its steam almost immediately in the second quarter.
“I think we just had the ‘hangover’ … the way we started,” said IHS head coach Travis Nanaeto, alluding to not only the Bobcats’ win over MVHS but their strong effort a day before that in a home loss to Alamosa. “And (Centauri) did work us pretty good, but … there’s lessons to learn. Maybe it’s a good thing we did lose, you know? It wakes you up for the next game.”
Hero against Monte Vista thanks to her buzzer-beating 3-pointer, Brown sank IHS’ first and only three against the Falcons during the third quarter, bringing the Bobcats back to 37-13 before CHS went on a quarter-ending 10-0 run.
Brown finished with five points.
Tucker ended up with a game-high 12 points, complemented by McCarroll’s seven and senior reserve Emily Tibbitts’ six.
Centauri will next conclude regular-season work Friday at AHS (17-5, 9-2). Ignacio will have to wait until Sunday to learn if its ’24-25 campaign will continue into the postseason.
