By Jim Thomas

PUEBLO— "Dee-fense, dee-fense," the Dolores fans chanted Thursday night, March 9, in the Pueblo Event Center.

Dolores head coach Greg Buffington’s talk to his players before their quarterfinal game with Holly was "Defense is what will get us to the semifinals."

The undefeated Bears (23-0) played hard-nosed defense all game and went on to defeat the Wildcats 54-39 to advance to Friday afternoon’s showdown against Strasburg, a 66-62 win over Caliche, at the Class 2A Girls State Basketball Championships here. In other quarterfinals games, Sanford knocked off Julesburg 32-26, and Byers slipped by West Grand 35-32.

If the Bears won Friday afternoon (4 p.m.) they will play in the championship game at 7 p.m. today, March 11. If they lost, they will play for third place at 11:45 a.m.

"Defense is what we preach all season long and that was our talk going in (against Holly)," Buffington commented following the game. "We don’t have to be excellent offense, but if we are excellent on defense, we will win."

Late in the fourth quarter, Ruthie Martin made a steal and a lay-up and Jennifer Trevillian made a steal and a lay-up giving the Bears a commanding 50-36 lead with under two minutes remaining.

A 6-0 run at the end of the first half, coupled with a 6-0 run to start the third quarter is what doomed Holly. Many of those scores came off transition baskets from steals.

The game got started on a good note when Martin canned a three-point goal on Dolores’ first possession. Dolores held a 7-2 lead with 5:26 on the clock. But early jitters allowed Holly to get back in at 9-7 with 3:26 on the clock. The score was deadlocked 11-11 when the first period came to a close.

"I told them during a timeout that they would have to work through their nervousness. It took them a few minutes but we finally settled down," Buffington noted.

The game stayed close in the second period as well, at least through the early moments. Dolores trailed 14-13 with 5:24 showing. Buffington called a quick 20-second timeout to stop Holly’s momentum. The Bears responded as Brianna Hanson hit a turn-around in the lane which put them up 17-14. It was that crowd-pleasing shot that gave Dolores momentum of its own and started a 6-0 run. The Bears led 23-16 at the half.

Hanson drove the lane for a score and Tegan Brown made two consecutive steals and lay-ups to start the third period and another Bear 6-0 run.

"We knew coming out we had the momentum and if we could get a little bit of a run we could make Holly wilt," Buffington said.

The Mustangs, though, simply would not go away. Dolores led 29-20 after a short Holly run with 3:50 to go in the third. Tiffany Boone’s steal and lay-up put the Bears up 36-22 with 1:20 left. Tawnya Hartshorn canned a three for Holly near the end of the period. Dolores led 38-29.

Brown sank two free throws to give Dolores a 40-29 lead with 7:24 remaining in the game. The Mustangs rallied and pulled within eight at 42-34 with 5:29 showing. Trevillian made a nice putback to put the Bears up by 10 at 44-34. At that point the Bears made their final defensive stand for the win.

Martin paced the Bears in scoring with 17 points. Brown sank 12, Trevillian added 10, and Hanson, 9. Hartshorn led Holly with 15 and Karli Sherwood added 8.

Dolores has never won a semifinal game in three previous trips to State. Each time they were defeated by Fowler. But this year Fowler is not at State.