Since moving to the Intermountain League prior to the 2016-17 season, the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls and boys basketball teams have found trips to the San Luis Valley to be challenging.
That trend continued last weekend when the M-CHS boys team, led my head coach Michael Hall, traveled to play Alamosa on Jan. 12 and Centauri on Jan. 13 and walked away with one victory.
Starting strong in Alamosa’s home gym, the Panthers offense fired on all cylinders during the first half, which ended with M-CHS leading 24-17. The second half was not so kind to M-CHS, however, as Alamosa outscored the Panthers 13-4 in the third quarter and coasted to a 48-38 win.
Because statistics for the contest were not made available, high scorers for the Panthers were unknown to The Journal as of press time. Ry Adams led Alamosa in scoring with 17 points, and fellow senior Noah Romero chipped in 13 points for the Mean Moose.
Alamosa entered its contest against M-CHS ranked second in Colorado’s 3A class with a 6-1 overall record. Alamosa’s lone loss this season came to third-ranked Faith Christian at the Glenwood Springs Demon Basketball Invitational on Dec. 7.
One night after falling to Alamosa, M-CHS traveled to face Centauri and came from behind to register a 73-69 victory. The Panthers trailed 38-36 at halftime and 54-49 at the end of the third quarter before outscoring Centauri 24-15 over the final eight minutes.
Statistics for the game were not available at press time. M-CHS improved to 6-4 after its victory while Centauri fell to 7-4 on the year.
On the girls’ side, M-CHS opened its weekend with a road game against Alamosa on Jan. 12 and lost 33-15. Statistics were unavailable for the contest.
The Lady Panthers followed up their loss to Alamosa with a 60-17 road loss to Centauri on Jan. 13. M-CHS trailed 16-2 at the end of the first quarter and 27-4 at halftime. The Lady Panther offense played slightly better in the second half, scoring 13 total points.
Senior Ember Canty led Centauri in scoring with 15 points and senior Caroline Van Berkum scored 11. Statistics for the Lady Panthers were unavailable. M-CHS dropped to 2-8 on the season with the loss, while Centauri improved to 11-0 on the year with the victory.
Next up for the M-CHS boys and girls teams will be a road matchup against Monte Vista on Jan. 19, followed by a home game against Pagosa Springs on Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m.
