To make it back to the state tournament, the Ignacio High School girls basketball team will need to go through a team that knows the way there. IHS (17-4) will face Meeker at 3 p.m. Friday at Grand Junction High School in the first round of the CHSAA Class 2A western regional.
The Cowgirls took third place last season after a one-point loss in the semifinals to eventual state champion Yuma.
They lost seven seniors from that team but rebounded to survive their district tournament.
Sydney Hughes returned, though, and she will be trouble for the Bobcats.
She has scored 21 points per game, good for second in Class 2A and seventh in the state. She also had grabbed 6.8 rebounds, dished out 4.2 assists and snagged 7.8 steals per contest, which leads all of Colorado.
“They’ve got a fantastic guard. Inside and out, she’s very capable of making her shots,” IHS head coach Shane Seibel said. “She’s their hub. Our focus is going to be to shut her down and pay heads up defense on her.”
The bulk of that burden will fall on senior guard Sky Cotton, who plays a similar role for IHS despite not leading the team in scoring.
She averages 9.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game while spearheading Ignacio’s offensive and defensive attack on every possession.
“I think they kind of equal each other out in skill level,” Seibel said. “I think they’re very similar.”
That similarity extends to their running mates in the post.
Hughes has Megan Parker, a 5-foot-8 senior that scores 10.1 points per contest, and Cotton dishes to freshman Hilda Garcia, the team’s leading scorer who is proficient scoring inside the paint and beyond the 3-point line.
She averages a team-high 13.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
“I think we match up pretty good,” Seibel said. “We just want to be able to be focused on the task at hand.”
Should the Bobcats make it past Meeker, they’ll face either Cedaredge or Vail Christian for the regional championship that eluded them last season at Fort Lewis College.
A win there advances them to the state tournament. Cotton is the only player on the current roster with state tournament experience.
Ignacio’s crop of youngsters still knows what’s at stake, though.
“Our freshmen were in attendance (last year), and they could feel that, sense that and see that. For the seniors, that’s it – their high school career,” Seibel said. “The players that were on the court last year, it gives them a sense of, ‘hey, that was a tough loss, and it sucks for our seniors because that’s their last game.’ I think it’s valuable to bring forward what happened last year and build upon it.”
kgrbaowski@durangoherald.com