By the time the final buzzer sounded Saturday, the Bayfield High School boys basketball team was worn out.
Bayfield played its fifth game in nine days and did not have the energy to finish off Middle Park at the Buena Vista Tournament, as the Wolverines fell 49-47.
After getting off to a slow start on offense, Bayfield (3-2) had a 10-point deficit late in the game, but the Wolverines stormed back and took the lead with 19 seconds remaining in the game after Hayden Farmer hit a jump shot. But the Wolverines let the lead slip away after Middle Park’s Jackson Wolle made a 3-pointer with five seconds remaining.
Bayfield had a shot to win the game after a deflected ball gave the Wolverines a final opportunity under their own basket with two seconds left. Farmer, who was the inbounder, passed the ball in but then caught the ball himself. He fired a potential game-tying shot that went in, but it was waived off because Farmer never re-established himself back inbounds. The Panthers were able to dribble out the final seconds.
“We didn’t play well, and we didn’t have the energy we needed today,” BHS head coach Klint Chandler said. “Defensively, it was rough in the first half, and we changed it up and improved for the final two quarters. We battled back to take the lead, but it was tough way to lose.”
Ethan Morris led the Wolverines in scoring with 15 points, while Briant Cuellar finished with eight points.
BHS will take to the road to face San Juan High School of Blanding, Utah, at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We came out of this stretch 3-2, and I think we’ll be alright,” Chandler said. “We went four games on the road and only hosted one, but I liked our effort, and we just have some things we need to keep working on to get better each day.”
After getting off to a hot start to begin its season, the Durango High School boys basketball team dropped its fourth consecutive game Saturday afternoon, as the Demons fell 44-42 to Shiprock in the eighth-place game at the Marv Sanders Invitational in Farmington.
Head coach Alan Batiste said he is looking forward to this week in practice to getting back to basics.
“We’re not giving ourselves opportunities, and we’re not scoring like we should be,” Batiste said. “There’s no continuity to our offense, and we have to go back to the drawing board in order to simplify our offense and figure out who we are as a team.”
Junior Esai Gomez led the way with seven points for the Demons (2-4).
Durango’s road will not get any easier, as it will travel to Colorado Springs for the Mitchell Tournament.
“With that tournament, our athleticism is going to have to go up tremendously, because that’s the level of play we’ll be seeing,” Batiste said. “We have to slow things down on offense and really make them work on the defensive end when it’s all said and done.
“We just took a step back after we made the championship last week. Today, we finished in eighth out of eight teams. As a coaching staff, we have to simplify the game for them and, hopefully, we can be more successful on the court if we do that.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
