Facing a school two classifications larger, the Ignacio High School boys basketball team didn’t back down.

Instead, for the second time in as many games to open the season, the Bobcats came out on top against a larger school with a 63-58 win against Glenwood Springs at the Centauri Mountain Top Classic tournament.

Wyatt Hayes finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists to lead Ignacio (2-0). Anthony Manzanares finished with 18 points, and Nicholas Herrera and Tucker Ward each finished with 10 points and six assists each.

“We had an 18-point lead late in the third quarter, early in the fourth,” IHS head coach Chris Valdez said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “We had some defensive breakdowns on switches and stuff, and they had a fantastic kid (Cameron Horning) who knocked the lights out. But our kids hung in there and conserved the win down the stretch with free throws. I never thought it would be a problem where we would lose the game.”

The Ignacio girls team (1-2) struggled in a 46-19 loss to Centauri. Hilda Garcia, Avionne Gomez and Miriam Fernandez-Lopez all finished with five points in the game. Fernandez-Lopez is a foreign exchange student from Spain.

The girls team will face Rye at 10 a.m. Saturday, while the boys will play Centauri for the tournament championship at 1 p.m.

jlivingston@durangoherald.com