The Intermountain and San Juan Basin League races are heating up as the area schools hit the homestretch of the regular season.
“Home” might be the operative word for the Panthers. Montezuma-Cortez High School looks forward to a big stretch of games in The Jungle after spending 14 of their first 15 games on the road.
After the Panthers collected a wire-to-wire win over Ignacio on Tuesday night (77-61), Mike Hall’s squad improved to 11-4 and 3-1 in the IML. Since their league-opening loss to IML-leading Centauri, the Panthers have rattled off three consecutive road league wins to set up their home league slate beginning this weekend.
On Friday, the Panthers host Monte Vista (8-4, 1-2 IML), who makes their return to the IML after a brief hiatus. The Pirates and Panthers will kick off play with the girls tipping off at 6 p.m., and the boys at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday, M-CHS faces off with Bayfield (9-5, 3-1 IML) in a battle for second place. Girls action starts at 12:30 p.m., and the boys will battle at 2 p.m.
All four games will be available on 98.7 FM KRTZ and krtzradio.com.
The M-CHS girls seek their first league wins of the year after Brad Wright’s Panthers (3-10, 0-4 IML) fought hard but fell to Ignacio (6-8, 2-2 IML) on Tuesday, 44-37. They will play their next eight games at home, while the M-CHS boys kick off a stretch of six straight in their friendly confines.
The Dove Creek boys (9-5, 4-0 SJBL) made a serious statement about their SJBL intentions with a dominant second half in a 60-43 win over Nucla (11-4, 3-2 SJBL) to stay unbeaten in league play on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s game of the night, however, happened down the road in Dolores, where the Bears nearly helped out Dove Creek’s title aspirations. Dolores (4-11, 2-5 SJBL) trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half against another league front-runner, Ridgway, before storming back to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
The Demons made a bucket with 10 seconds remaining to reclaim a 52-51 lead, but Bears senior Michael Nielson nailed a free throw after being fouled to tie the game with under two seconds to go.
With overtime appearing imminent, Ridgway pulled out a carbon copy of the infamous 1998 NCAA men’s tournament, where Valparaiso made a long inbounds pass to Bryce Drew, who then drilled a long 3-pointer to beat Ole Miss. Demons junior Brodie Musgrove buried the 25-footer at the horn to sink the Bears, 55-52, and keep Ridgway (6-7, 5-1 SJBL) within a game in the loss column of Dove Creek atop the SJBL field.
The Dolores girls nearly pulled off a comeback against Ridgway. Down 18-4 at halftime, the Bears (5-11, 3-4 SJBL) climbed back, only to fall 32-29.
Back in the Dawg House, Nucla’s girls turned around a halftime deficit to upend Dove Creek (10-4, 3-1 SJBL) by a final of 39-31 in a battle of the league’s two previously unbeaten squads. The Mustangs victory snapped a 20-game losing streak against the Bulldogs dating to 2018. It also put Nucla (12-3, 5-0 SJBL) in the pole position for a push at the SJBL crown.
Nucla looks to continue their winning ways on Thursday night when they host Mancos, while Dolores and Telluride are set for the league’s only contest on Friday. Saturday will see Mancos travel to Ridgway and Dove Creek to Telluride.
