SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – Detonating like a powder keg, the explosion of applause resulting from senior guard Merci Craft’s buzzer-beating baseball-style heave from beyond midcourt lifted the hosting Lady Miners to new heights as they hustled back to their locker room for what must have been their most energized halftime pause of the 2021-22 season.
Which, until Wednesday evening inside Telluride’s Miner Dome, hadn’t favored THS or visiting Bayfield.
“I personally did not think it was going to go in!” Craft recalled afterward. “But to look at all my teammates’ faces after I made that shot was awesome; they were all, like, tearing up and pushing me over – I was almost knocked out – but it was awesome. I feel like it hyped us up for the second half, brought our energy up.”
“We were only up by eight points at halftime,” said BHS head coach Lauren Moran, “and … you know, we don’t have a lot of experience with playing ahead, so we were just trying to emphasize to them to not take their (feet) off the gas pedal.”
“That last-second shot, I think, just shows how quickly things can change!”
Having seen THS battle BHS to a 6-6 draw midway through the first quarter, then her squad find senior Abby Tate for four consecutive close-range baskets — putting Bayfield up 12-6 after the first quarter and then 14-6 early in the second — Telluride soon rallied to as close as 16-11, and Moran seemed to have sensed BHS’ 22-14 lead at intermission may not have been as sturdy as it appeared.
And although the Lady Wolverines cranking up their defensive intensity in the third quarter — capped by a Tate free throw with 6.9 seconds remaining and sophomore Michelle Kirk rebounding Tate’s missed second FT and swishing a left-wing 17-footer at the buzzer — the skipper reserved any sort of first-win grin until junior Abria Thayer completed a perfectly run inbounds play with a corner three and only 2:08 left in the interleague test.
“I can’t remember exactly how much we were up by,” said Moran, her Lady Wolverines’ 35-22 third-quarter lead increased to 43-26 by Thayer’s make, “but that was really nice execution. I was happy for her that she connected on that shot.”
“Two points is always awesome,” said Tate, having booked nine two-pointers en route to totaling a game-high 20 points, “but a three really gets you going, happy for your teammate that they got that. It felt great.”
After Tate made her last bucket, junior Alaysia Kremer shut down the show with an end-to-end breakaway layup, giving Bayfield (1-10, 0-1 3A Intermountain) a 47-26 victory — Moran’s first varsity win as skipper – ending the program’s 14-game slide dating to last season, while extending Telluride’s own to 14.
“I think overall our execution was the best that it’s been. We’ve done a good job of learning offenses, but it’s been hard to execute them (against) defense, and today they put it all together,” Moran said. “After a whole week off, their energy level was very high; they were obviously very excited to be back together and back on the court.”
“Winning’s fun, the girls are super-excited – this was a good day.”
“Definitely the stadium got a good watch,” said Kremer, who scored 12 points. “We put up a fight with intensity and wanted the win. Like, we put a lot of trust in each other, know what we can do, and when we see it on the court then we just put in our all.”
All told, seven of the eight Lady Wolverines to see the court contributed at least a point to the cause. Senior Jordan Martindale and freshman Renae Foutz each chipped in four points. Thayer scored three; Kirk, two; and sophomore Elissa Mars, two.
“Coach said at the beginning, it’s going to come down to whoever wants it more,” Tate said. “And we’ve been wanting it all season, but sometimes you don’t get it because you play the rough teams. But tonight was good; we pulled it together.”
The Lady Miners (0-7, 0-1 2A/1A San Juan Basin) got nine points from speedy freshman guard Madi Miller, plus a hard-fought seven from junior post Amy Guerrero. Five points came during the first quarter, including three of THS’ first four and then a confident take to the hole making the score 6-all.
“During our practices we’re really, like, ‘We’ve got to get it in,’” Guerrero said. “We have new players coming in, we have good players who are upperclassmen, and we want to show people that we’re better than we’ve been. Really show that this is our court, our home, and we’re not going to let people take that from us.”
“Winning in the first quarter … we’ve never had that feeling this season, so that was huge for us,” said head coach Yana Pollard, assisted by last season’s leader – and former BHS boys’ aide under Jeff Lehnus — Matt Gonzales. “I also gave the girls, like, specific personal goals and the majority of them … met their goals tonight. So that’s a ‘win’ for us in our book.”
Telluride will next test the 2A/1A Western Slope League, visiting 2A Rangely on Friday, and 1A De Beque Saturday.
Bayfield, meanwhile, will resume IML play Friday at Centauri (5-6, 1-1). Bayfield will then welcome Alamosa on Monday and visit 4A Durango’s JV Tuesday.
“Just running and going as hard as we can throughout the entire game, that’s when the conditioning is really going to come,” Tate said. “It’s going to take a lot.”
