The Ignacio High School girls basketball team is getting used to going under the basket and posing for pictures with the district championship trophy. They’ve done it for each of the last seven seasons, and did it once more on Sunday after they cruised past Dolores 57-23 in the Class 2A San Juan Basin League District 3 Tournament.
The Bobcats (15-6) opened the first quarter on fire and got off to a 23-5 lead by the end of the opening quarter. IHS would extend the lead to 38-14.
IHS Head Coach Justa Whitt said it didn’t matter what the final score was, she wanted her offense to be productive.
“We went in today saying that they needed to make a statement for themselves,” Whitt said. “That’s part of what you saw out there, and basically, we played full-court man-to-man the whole time, and that’s what I asked them to do. Because we have to look forward to next week and we have to prepare for that today. People can look at that however they want, but we were preparing for next week.”
Ignacio was led by Makayla Howell, who had 10 points, alongside Ebonee Gomez, who also had 10. Jayden Brunson and Charlize Valdez had eight.
The Bobcats continued to wreck havoc on the defensive end of the floor and held the Bears to just nine points in the second half.
IHS led 48-19 at the end of the third, but had its starters in until the final minutes of the game.’
“They’re a strong team and have always been a strong team, we just kind of had a lull here that we’ve been trying to come out of,” Whitt said. “They definitely took a step out of that today, and unfortunately, we play some weaker teams in our league and that’s a downfall for us. Therefore, it requires us to play games like that where we have no mercy. It is what it is, and you can’t stop our girls from playing how hard, playing hard to the whistle, and playing to not hurt somebody else’s feelings. We want to be district champions anyway possible, and we earned it.”
Moving forward, Whitt said the intensity of practice will increase now that the postseason begins.
“We’re going to continue working hard, and no matter who we’ve got next weekend, there are always some things to clean up,” Whitt said. “This is the part of the year that we look forward to, and it’s going to be a grind these next few weeks, and we can’t wait to see where this team goes.”
Ignacio will host the regional as a district champion and will play next Friday and Saturday in the first and second rounds of the regional. IHS will find out its opponents when the full Class 2A bracket is released on Monday.
bploen@durangoherald.com
