Sanford bests Ignacio in Final Four – again

PUEBLO – Deja vu punched the Ignacio High School boys basketball team in the stomach Friday.

The No. 3 Bobcats faced No. 2 Sanford in the CHSAA Class 2A State Championships Final Four for the second year in a row Friday in Pueblo.

Both games ended the same way – with Sanford advancing to play for a state championship and IHS (22-3) dropping into the third-place game.

Sanford (26-0) now has won 45 consecutive games over the last two seasons.

The Indians prevailed 65-54 in the game’s 2015 edition and will face either Resurrection Christian or Simla for a state title at 7 p.m. Saturday.

IHS trailed by double digits for most of the final three quarters, fighting foul trouble. Anthony Manzanares and Tucker Ward picked up two fouls in the first quarter, and Nick Hererra eventually had to sit down with fouls, too.

“We got two of them, which was the toughest part. We couldn’t just hide one of position, we had two positions playing with young players that are really not ready for this level, maybe,” IHS head coach Chris Valdez said.

At one point, the Bobcats played with Austin McCaw, Kruz Pardo and Xavier Reynolds on the floor at the same time with Wyatt Hayes and Adison Jones. The first three usually only see the floor at the end of blowouts.

Pardo acquitted himself well with eight points, and McCaw continued his steady play this postseason.

“We drew up a game plan, and we tried to follow it,” said McCaw, son of Ed and Kelly McCaw.

Those lineups put most of the scoring pressure on Hayes and Jones, who played the whole game. Hayes led the team with 17 points, and Jones scored 14.

They couldn’t keep up with Sanford, which had four players score in double figures, led by Clayton Peterson with 17.

The Bobcats trailed 33-21 at halftime but managed to cut their deficit to six with 6 minutes, 37 seconds left when Manzanares finished a layup through contact and made his free throw to make it 48-42 Sanford. He then fouled out on Ignacio’s next offensive possession with a charge, and Sanford stretched its lead back to nine with a three-point play.

“There was a moment when we did get down where we felt we could control the game and control the play and we could come back,” said Jones, son of Greg Jones and Latisha Taylor. “They just hit big shots.”

Sanford also started to use as much clock as it could on possessions with about three minutes left, utilizing Colorado’s lack of a shot clock in high school basketball.

The Bobcats tried to blitz every ball-handler to force turnovers but couldn’t make up a 10-point deficit with that little time left. Now they’ll play in the third-place game for the second year in a row against the loser of the Resurrection Christian/Simla game at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“This is our last game of the year. We want to end the season on a positive note,” Valdez said. “We’ve got kids who have a lot of pride in who they are and where they’re from.

kgrabowski@duangoherald.com