In the past several years, the Montezuma-Cortez High School and Pagosa High School girls basketball teams have been at opposite ends of the spectrum as far as wins and losses are concerned.
Year in and year out, the Pirates have finished near the top of the Intermountain League, while the Panthers have consistently found themselves at the bottom of the league standings.
Therefore, when the two teams met in Cortez on Jan. 11, it wasn’t altogether surprising when the visiting Pirates overwhelmed the hometown Panthers and won by a final score of 53-24.
Although M-CHS head coach Tim Robinson acknowledged some positives in light of the lopsided final score, the first-year head of the Lady Panthers program emphasized that his team still has plenty to work on.
“We need to work on everything,” Robinson said. “We didn’t execute our offense, and that hurt us. Boxing out killed us. They had more rebounds than we did, and that was probably the difference in the game. Pagosa is a tough team, and they play tough defense.”
In addition to the problems created for M-CHS by the Pirates’ defensive pressure, several missed layups and jumpers played a key role in the Lady Panthers’ demise.
After sophomore Paige Yarbrough scored early on a pretty up-and-under move early in the first quarter to tie the game, 4-4, the Pirates dominated the rest of the first quarter and pulled ahead 20-6.
M-CHS’s offense continued to struggle throughout the second quarter as the team’s only points came courtesy of a layup by Malia Begay and a free throw by Presley Frost. Pagosa Springs extended its lead to 33-9 entering halftime.
“We couldn’t hit any shots,” said Robinson, after the game. “Nothing would fall.”
Coming out of the halftime break, the Lady Panthers played far better, especially on the defensive end, thanks to increased hustle and better rebounding.
Indicative of such hustle was an impressive effort by junior Dimery Plewe, who raced to grab a loose ball near the sideline before flipping the ball behind her back toward a teammate while falling out of bounds.
“I thought the second half, we played pretty good defense,” Robinson said. “I thought we played much better in the second half. We hustled.”
Among the scoring leaders for M-CHS were Yarbrough and senior Ayanna Silas, who scored seven points. Hayden Leggett added four for the Lady Panthers.
Pagosa Springs was led in scoring by Devin Wilson, who scored a game-high 18 points. Taylor Lewis chipped in eight.
A day after falling to Pagosa Springs, M-CHS lost in Bayfield, 53-47. With the losses, the Lady Panthers’ record now stands at 3-5 overall and 0-2 in the Intermountain League.
Next up for M-CHS will be a home matchup against Alamosa on Jan. 18.
