In the Intermountain League, it helps to have a short memory.
After three forgettable losses on the road against the league’s top three teams, Montezuma-Cortez High School needed a reset as they faced rival Bayfield, who was in the midst of its own struggles.
In perhaps their most complete performance of the season, head coach Mike Hall’s Panthers on Saturday powered past Bayfield with a combination of incisive passing and strong defense, topping the Wolverines 69-55 to seize a regular season sweep.
A decisive first half, one in which the Panthers burned their hosts numerous times on back door cuts and screen-and-rolls, helped the Panthers built a 15-point intermission advantage. The lead would balloon north of 20 points several times in the second half, even after the Wolverines briefly cut the deficit to single digits.
The opening quarter set the tone, as six Panthers contributed with field goals, while the interior defense cut off Bayfield’s planned attack to win the game in the paint. M-CHS led 15-7, and would only grow in confidence over the subsequent eight minutes.
Freshman Trey Hall canned a pair of three-pointers in the second stanza, part of a run that saw sophomore Wyatt Oliver contribute four of his seven points, while freshman Asher and sophomore Trace Hartsoe scored as well. The Panthers stormed into the locker room with a 34-19 lead.
Bayfield made their run in the third quarter, scoring the first six points as junior Lincoln Williams tried to will his team back into the game.
However, every Wolverine run was met with a Panther answer, as junior Tay Wheat scored six of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, while Hall continued to pile up points, often after the Wolverines had overcommitted to going for steals.
“We found each other when we were open,” said Trey Hall of their offensive success. “We were more energetic – it was definitely more ‘team’ basketball than what we had been playing.”
Hall finished with a game-high 20 points, the second time against Bayfield that he eclipsed that threshold, while Wheat’s 13 and Bennetts’ 10 accounted for the double figure scoring. Senior Easton Hartsoe added nine, while his brother Trace collected seven, as did Oliver.
“Coach (Hall) has been telling us to run our plays,” added Hall, the coach’s nephew, “and we caught them (Bayfield) cheating a bit, and we were able find a lot of good looks on the back door.”
Bayfield’s Vincent McCullough tried to keep the home team in it, scoring a team-high 19 points, while Williams added 14 and sophomore Kingston Martinez poured in 11 tallies. The Panthers limited Bayfield’s top scorer Cooper Rodrick to five points, well below his 16-point average.
The Panthers held Bayfield to their lowest point output in the series since 2020, while outscoring their hosts 24-4 in bench points to earn their second straight regular season sweep.
M-CHS capped a four-game road swing with the victory, and now looks forward to a homestand of equivalent length in the coming weeks, kicking off this Friday, Feb. 2 with a home matchup against Alamosa. The following afternoon, the Panthers meet Centauri in “The Jungle,” hoping that their home court advantage will allow them to seek revenge against two opponents that defeated the Panthers in the San Luis Valley.
“The upperclassmen have reminded us that if we want to be able to compete well against those teams (Alamosa and Centauri), we’ve got to be tough,” said Hall, as his team looks to turn the tide this weekend.
Local radio station 98.7 FM KRTZ and krtzradio.com will bring all the action from the Friday night encounter with the Mean Moose, with the boys game tipping about 7 p.m.
