Nearly two weeks of road games now are over for the Ignacio High School boys basketball team.
Ignacio will host Dolores at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at IHS, the Bobcats’ first home game since defeating Dove Creek 80-23 on Jan. 18.
“It’s nice to get home where the crowd is there and we can get local fans that can’t travel,” IHS head coach Chris Valdez said.
Not that travelling particularly has bothered these ’Cats, who have accumulated an 11-0 overall record and a 2-0 mark in the San Juan Basin League.
Ignacio is 7-0 on the road and ranked No. 1 in the CHSAANow.com Class 2A poll.
Ignacio has won its last eight games by double digits, and the Bobcats’ closest game this season was a five-point win over Kirtland Central on Dec. 7.
Dolores (4-7, 2-0 SJBL) might not provide the type of challenge these ’Cats are looking for. The Bears have lost their last two games this season and have given up more than 70 points six times.
Mikeal Ford leads Dolores in scoring at 12.8 points per game, while Jalen Balderrama ranks second at 8.2; Dolores averages 16.7 turnovers per game, while IHS takes the ball away 11.6 times per game.
“They really don’t have a great point guard; they don’t have a great shooting guard. They’re pretty young,” Valdez said. “We’ve got to treat them like any other team, try and get our press going because that‘s the only time we can work on it.”
IHS has a policy against pressing and trapping once its lead reaches a certain point.
In order to combat complacency, the coaches have increased the intensity of their practices with more scrimmaging this week to help kickstart the team.
“It’s a long season, and you have to push through the lulls,” Valdez said. “You can’t take two or three weeks off then expect to be in tip top shape.”
IHS girls basketball
A home game is exactly what the IHS girls basketball team needs right now.
The Bobcats have lost their last four games and struggled to score during that stretch, not putting more than 38 points on the board in any of those games.
First-year head coach Shane Seibel has focused on finishing in practice this week.
“That’s really been our achilles,” Seibel said. “We have great moments offensively and defensively, then we hit a wall.”
IHS (2-10, 0-2 SJBL) will need a complete effort to stop Dolores (5-6, 1-2 SJBL). The Bears currently are on a three-game losing streak but pack a powerful offensive weapon in Brianna Schwartz.
She leads Dolores with 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
“I firmly believe it’s going to be our defensive pressure, playing smart defense and play four full quarters of solid defense (that wins us the game),” Seibel said. “That’s really been a point of emphasis.”
The Bobcats have struggled this year, but Seibel has seen growth and improvement despite the challenges.
“I’m seeing growth in our team defense and our support of one another, so the team concept,” Seibel said. “They went though the losses, and it’s easy to get down, but they’ve worked hard.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
