Backed against the wall by first-quarter bumrushes from Montezuma-Cortez and Centauri, Bayfield’s girls dropped their first two 3A/4A Intermountain League games this weekend inside BHS Gymnasium.
“That’s just kind of the tricky thing about (league) play; you have to figure out how to prepare for two teams, that might be very different, at the same time,” said BHS head coach Lauren Moran, after a 61-17 loss Saturday to Centauri, which began with the visitors scoring 15 unanswered points.
“I definitely feel like we played better last night,” she said, alluding to the Lady Wolverines’ 49-28 loss to M-CHS, “in part because we were preparing specifically for Cortez in practice – particularly working against their type of zone (defense), full-court pressing that they do. And I knew in the back of my mind that Centauri would – like they always do – do full-court man, and we weren’t really preparing for that.”
“We got to use everybody,” CHS head coach Troy Reynolds said. “We’re deep, got a bunch of girls that can play – it’s always fun to look at the score book and see that a lot of girls have scored. That was something I was impressed with, for sure.”
All told, 10 Lady Falcons each logged at least two points for Centauri, ranked fourth in the CHSAANow.com Class 3A poll. Opening the game with one of her two 3-pointers, senior Amaya Garcia led the way with 14 points, and classmate Abbey Smith also drained two treys in totaling eight points.
Junior forward/center Lacey Johnson helped CHS (9-2 overall, 2-0 IML) build an 18-2 lead through eight regulation minutes with her first six of eight points, while sophomore Jocelyn Jarvies’ first six of seven points helped the guests increase their advantage to 36-7 at halftime. Sophomore Hannah Curtis cashed one triple and ended up with seven points.
“Bayfield, boy, they were scrappy!” said Reynolds. “They didn’t let up – that first quarter they were going after those boards hard and finally we kind of settled in, got some composure and got our box-outs. Started crashing the boards on our own and that definitely helped the momentum.”
Sophomore Renae Foutz neared double-digit rebounds for BHS (2-6, 0-2 IML), but was held to three points offensively. Junior Genesis Barrera went 4-of-6 from the free-throw line and ended up with a team-high 10 points, while senior Alaysia Kremer and junior Madison Mead – hampered by three first-quarter personal fouls – each booked two.
“That’s just more room for growth moving forward,” Moran said. “I think we do have a scrappy group that’s willing to fight against bigger players, and do whatever they can to get the ball.”
Continuing league play, Bayfield will next host Ignacio (6-4, 0-2) Thursday, Jan. 19.
Fierce Friday: Scoreless through the first 7:40 against M-CHS on the 13th, the Wolverines went into the second quarter down 19-2, but then swapped four points for four with the Panthers before intermission, and traded eight for eight during the third quarter – leaving Montezuma-Cortez owning a 31-14 lead beginning the final frame.
Aware that they’d not given the guests any more ground, the Lady Wolverines then began the fourth on a confident 7-0 run to close the gap to 31-21. Lady Panther junior Cyriah Begay, however, then canned the first of her three fourth-quarter threes, and sophomore Taylor Whited promptly followed with one of her own – the first six points of a game-breaking 18-0 run, rebuilding the visitors’ lead up to 49-21 before Barrera buried a late triple.
Totaling five treys after entering from Brad Wright’s bench, Begay ended up registering a game-high 18 points, and starter Whited followed closely with 15. Junior Savannah Haselroth scored seven points and classmate Markylla Jones five.
Though going 1-of-7 from the charity stripe – part of BHS’ collective 3-of-17 mark – Kremer still totaled nine points. Barrera finished with eight, Foutz five, senior Abria Thayer four (including BHS’ very first two, halting M-CHS’ initial 19-0 spree) and Mead two.
