BAYFIELD

Second-half comebacks are becoming routine for the Bayfield boys basketball team.

The Wolverines erased a five-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat Piedra Vista 75-64 on Tuesday night at Bayfield High School.

BHS (6-4) lost its previous meeting with the Panthers 61-47 on Jan. 11, but execution was the difference in this game.

The Wolverines shot 48 percent from the field and made 6-of-12 3s while only turning the ball over 12 times.

“We’re starting to think the game; we’re understanding what needs to be done,” first-year BHS head coach Randy Stephens said. “If we’d have done that the first time, we’d have been right with them. They pulled away from us. This time, we executed and pulled away from them.”

Nobody exemplified that better than Dillon Hoselton. He scored 15 points without missing from the field or the free throw line, and most of that output came in the second half.

“Everything that kid does is at the right time,” said BHS forward Preston Hardy, son of Garth and Monna Hardy. “He could score three points the whole game, and those points would be the biggest points of the game.”

BHS trailed the entire game until Hardy tied it at 40 with 2 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Hardy finished the game with 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

The Wolverines took their first lead 30 seconds later on a Hoselton three-point play and didn’t look back.

BHS scored 47 points in the second half while holding the Panthers to 31.

“The first half we came out slow, like we usually do, but in the second half, after talking in the locker room, we played really well,” said Hoselton, son of Rick and Stephanie Hoselton. “We pressured the ball up top in a two-three zone instead of man-to-man; they shot the ball a lot better when we were in man-to-man.”

Orion Kaminsky led the Panthers with 15 points.

They shot 40 percent from the field and turned the ball over 14 times.

The Wolverines now have won their last three games since dropping two in a row to Piedra Vista and Fruita Monument.

They will re-enter Intermountain League play at 7 p.m. Friday at Pagosa Springs.

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com