The Bayfield High School boys basketball team came up empty when the Wolverines needed some shots to fall, and the result was a 52-47 loss to Pagosa Springs (11-5, 5-3 3A Intermountain League) Saturday night at BHS.
“We were kind of sluggish tonight,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said. “The effort was there, but we just seemed to be fatigued at times. Pagosa came in ready to play and played some good basketball. We needed some other shots to go down tonight and that didn’t happen.”
Ryan Phelps led BHS (11-6, 6-2 IML) with 27 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds, had five blocked shots and three steals. No other player cracked double figures for Bayfield.
The loss kept the Wolverines one game back of Alamosa for the league lead, as the Mean Moose (15-2, 7-1 IML) fell to Centauri 66-54 Saturday.
“Our league is tough, and I have a lot of respect for our league,” Lehnus said “On any given night, any team is capable of winning some ball games, and that Alamosa-Centauri game shows that.”
BHS will host Montezuma-Cortez (10-7, 4-4 IML) next Saturday.
Ignacio High School’s boys basketball team connected on 10 3-pointers to help the Bobcats (10-3, 8-0 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) to a lopsided 79-31 victory against Norwood (2-11, 2-6 SJBL) on Saturday night in Ignacio.
The Bobcats jumped out to an 18-4 lead after the first quarter before Norwood’s Donovan Dowden connected from long range to get it to 21-10. But after that, it was all Ignacio, which built a 39-21 halftime lead.
The Bobcats exploded for 24 points in the third quarter to get the lead to 63-27 at the end of the quarter.
Kruz Pardo, Johnny Valdez and Daniel Weaver scored 14 points each for the Bobcats, and Ocean Hunter had 13 points.
All nine Bobcats who saw the floor scored at least three points in the win.
Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez was not available for comment.
Ignacio will be back in action Tuesday when the Bobcats clash with Durango at Whalen Gymnasium on the Fort Lewis College campus.
Girls Basketball
Girls BasketballAvionne Gomez scored 25 points, as she nearly outscored Norwood by herself Saturday in Ignacio.
The Ignacio High School senior was a force all game in Ignacio’s 70-29 home win against Norwood (2-11, 2-3 SJBL). The win kept the Bobcats undefeated on the season going into a game against Class 4A Durango, which will be played at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Whalen Gymnasium at Fort Lewis College.
“Again, the girls came out firing. We were up 13-0 in the first quarter before Norwood got on the board,” Ignacio head coach Trae Seibel said. “Norwood has a great, great guard in Cortney Lemon. She’s a tough guard. She came to play and for us to respond and contain her, even though she scored 17, was good because we wanted to make other girls for them take shots.”
Ignacio (13-0, 8-0 SJBL) began Saturday’s game on a 13-0 run and led 28-7 after one quarter before it took a 44-19 lead into halftime.
Cortney Lemon led the Mavericks with 17 points. Ignacio received eight points from Allisianna Baker-Marquez, Ebonee Gomez and Shelcie Gosney and another seven points from Jayden Brunson.
Through most of the first half, the Bayfield High School girls basketball team played tough with Pagosa Springs, but a late run in the second quarter from the Pirates (14-2, 8-0 3A Intermountain League) opened up the game and they cruised to a 68-20 victory Saturday night at BHS.
“I was really happy with the girls’ performance tonight,” BHS head coach Josh Kitchen said. “Midway through the second quarter we were down 10 or 12 and went on a little run to close that gap. Then Pagosa went on a run to get it back up to I think 18 at halftime.”
Individual stats were not available, but Kitchen said the Wolverines (4-12, 1-6 IML) had balanced scoring and praised their play in their 1-3-1 zone defense.
Bayfield will be off until next weekend when they host Montezuma-Cortez (3-13, 1-6 IML) on Saturday.
Sports editor John Livingston contributed to this report.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
