With one second remaining in the game, Alamosa’s Noah Romero stepped to the foul line and sank a pair of free throws that sent the Mean Moose to a 41-39 victory against the Bayfield High School boys basketball team Thursday night in Alamosa.

The victory secured the 3A Intermountain League title for Alamosa, which finished two games clear of Bayfield and Pagosa Springs in the standings.

“It was a tough loss, but it was the best we’ve played up here in four years,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said.

“While we may have come up on the short side this time, we’ll have a lot more confidence that we’ll come up here and play some good ball in the (IML) tournament on Thursday and Saturday.”

The Wolverines (12-7, 7-3 IML) struggled to score in the opening quarter and trailed the Mean Moose (17-2, 9-1 IML) 11-5 after eight minutes of action. But BHS bounced back in the second and took a 23-22 lead into halftime.

Bayfield’s defense clamped down in the third quarter and held Alamosa to five points to push its lead to 31-27 heading to the fourth.

No BHS player cracked double-digit scoring in the game. Hayden Farmer led the Wolverines with nine points, Carl Heide had eight points and Dax Snooks finished with seven points. Ryan Phelps added five points to go with 11 rebounds and four steals.

Romero led Alamosa with 17 points.

BHS got the No. 2 seed in the IML tournament and will face the winner of No. 3 Pagosa Springs (14-5, 7-3 IML) and No. 6 Monte Vista (6-13, 1-9 IML) on Thursday in Alamosa.

Girls Basketball

Girls BasketballThe Mean Moose of Alamosa took charge with a 19-4 first quarter en route to a 42-21 victory against the Bayfield High School girls basketball team Thursday in Alamosa.

Aside from the lopsided first quarter, the Wolverines (6-13, 3-7 3A Intermountain League) stuck close with Alamosa (12-7, 6-4 IML) and never lost a quarter by more than four points the rest of the game.

“We kind of talked about it before the game that it was senior night (for Alamosa),” BHS head coach Josh Kitchen said. “I think the girls from Alamosa were hyped up and came out and worked harder than us at first. Unfortunately, it took us a quarter to figure out that we had to come to play if we were going to stick with them.

“We were able to turn it around, but unfortunately weren’t able to overcome that score being lopsided in the first quarter.”

Katie Parkins led Alamosa with 12 points, and Alana Hackett added 11 after connecting on three 3-pointers in the game.

Freshman Macee Schultz led the Wolverines with five points, all of which came in the fourth quarter. Jordan Lanning, Tiara Christensen and Tymbree Florian had four points each.

BHS finished the season fourth in the Intermountain League and will host Montezuma-Cortez (10-9, 4-6 IML) in the first round of the league tournament Tuesday.

The Wolverines and Panthers split the season series, with each team winning on their home court.

kschneider@durangoherald.com