BY JIM THOMAS

GRAND JUNCTION — What a good season it was for the Dolores County High School boys basketball team.

The Bulldogs ended the year with a sparkling 17-5 record under first-year head coach Scott Crawford on Saturday, March 4, after losing 58-33 to Grand Valley at the Class 2A Western Regionals Basketball Tournament at Grand Junction High School. DCHS boys had not made an appearance at Regionals since the late 1980s but they did this year and made a good showing.

"I couldn’t have been happier with the way the kids played this year," Crawford said after the game. "No one thought we would be here. It is hard to go far the first year. One of my goals was just to win a couple more league games than last year. My goal was to only win eight games. I thought that was pretty realistic. We went far beyond that. This is about a basketball program not a team and this team laid the foundation for the program."

The Bulldogs fell behind 5-2 quickly but tied the score at 5-5. Clay McKinney canned a three which started the Cardinals on a roll. Dove Creek had a lot of trouble going inside against the various zones utilized by Grand Valley. When Jake Higuera hit a three, the Cards were up 13-5. They led 16-5 when the quarter ended.

Keith Pierce kept DCHS close after a he picked up a loose ball and scored which made the score 16-9 early in the second quarter. They closed the gap to 16-11 but that was as close as they would get the remainder of the game. Terence Gardner made an off-balance shot but GVHS was still up 25-15. GVHS led 29-17 at the half.

"We’ve had troubles against the zone all year," Crawford commented. "But this is the first year that we’ve been together and it is a long learning process. We definitely have more work to do on shooting and we will this summer. And then we will look forward to the fall and another good season."

Because DCHS did not have much luck going inside, they were forced to shoot some wild shots outside, not very good shot selections. Grand Valley led 39-21 with 2:03 to go. Rusty Angel scored nine of his 18 points in the quarter going mainly to the hoop. Grand Valley led 42-23 when the third quarter closed.

The Cardinals went ahead by 20 points at 45-25 when Angel made a lay-up with 6:23 to go. DCHS was now a team of desperation and their shot selections showed. When guard Chris Kale fouled out at 5:11, things continued not to go well for DCHS. Angel made a nice jumper which put GVHS up 51-28. Justin Wyatt did nail a three from the corner which made the score 53-33. But the Cardinals coasted from there to the win and earned a trip to State.