LA JARA - In their first tournament of the season, the Ignacio Bobcat girls had two good games and one they would rather forget.
On Dec. 3, IHS downed Glenwood Springs 45-24 at the La Jara Mountain Top Classic. On Saturday, the Ignacio girls edged Rye 37-30.
Denied a solitary field goal for the first 17:53 of the tournament's Day 2 contest, IHS amazingly found themselves still well within striking distance at halftime-trailing 12 to 6-as the normally opportunistic Centauri Falcons inexplicably failed to capitalize on their guests' inaccuracy. But after halftime, Centauri began increased their full-court pressure, pulling away from the Cats.
The girls still fought hard, however. Alyssa Gomez scored 10 third-quarter points and six in the fourth. She finished with a game-best 21, most via breakaway layups as fatigue and fouls became Ignacio's worst enemies. Centauri managed to separate out to a comfortable 32-10 lead entering the fourth.
Frustration also had a role. Bobcat senior Chrystianne Valdez was hit with a technical foul-doubling as her fourth personal-with 1:19 left in the third for an apparent argumentative remark to a referee. The outcome not in doubt, the only issue left unresolved was how many players would receive a disqualifying fifth.
The answer would be three-CHS senior Cheyanne Crowther (4:24 left in the game), IHS sophomore Hilda Garcia (4:11 left) and CHS senior Jordan Dunn (3:15)-before the final 46-19 score was made official.
One hoop came courtesy senior Miriam Fernandez-Lopez, who followed her nine-point debut the previous afternoon versus Glenwood Springs with a team-leading (tying sophomore Avionne Gomez) five against Centauri.
The pair combined for 8-of-11 free-throw shooting.
Garcia, who joined the duo in registering nine against the Demons-trailing only senior Ellie Seibel's 12-was held to four points. Junior Alejandra Lujan nailed two early freethrows and senior Gibran Silva two late, and Seibel just a fourth-quarter charity chuck.
Garcia led Ignacio's resurgence on Day 3 with 13 points versus the Thunderbolts.
Seibel and Gomez each netted nine points, with the former pulling in 10 rebounds and the latter five.
Up next, the Bobcats will hit the road to face non-league 2A Center away this evening, starting around 5:30 p.m. Center stands 0-3 after struggling last weekend in Mosca at Sangre de Cristo's Thunderbird Shootout
