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Jan. 29, 2001
By Jim Thomas The Dolores girls are rolling along right now and are in good shape with a 3-0 Class 2A San Juan Basin League record and are 9-2 overall. They had no problems crushing Norwood last week but had a much harder time this past Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26. The Bears edged past tough Telluride 64-60 Saturday afternoon at home and beat Dolores County 76-36 Friday night in Ron Wright Memorial Gym at Montezuma-Cortez High School. After missing a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Jennifer Trevillian sank two with 16 ticks remaining to ice the game at 63-59. Telluride would score again to make it close but Tracy Everett nailed one of two to nail down the win. Michel Arnold hit a three-pointer at 1 minute, 01 seconds left to pull the Miners to within a bucket at 59-57. Trevillian put DHS up 61-57 with 40 ticks remaining. Earlier in the period, the Bears converted two of four technical free throws to go up 45-38. Trevillian hit a jumper to put the Bears up 51-44 with 5:29 showing. But DHS suddenly got out of control and made several silly mistakes which allowed the Miners to get back into the game. "We knew it would be a game like this," DHS head coach Rob Melott said following the win. "Telluride has a very good team. We were lucky to pull this one out." Dolores held a slim 4-3 lead at 4:43 left early in the first quarter. The Bears attacked the basket well and were fouled several times. They hit nine-of-14 attempts to take a 15-9 lead when the period closed. The Miners had trouble making easy layups. McKenzie Reed’s putback put DHS ahead 19-12 early in the second quarter. Dolores played tough man defense and used a matchup when they set up. Telluride was scrambling for every point it made. Telluride, in fact, did not make a field goal until the 2:51 mark. Dolores was still drawing fouls and going to the line. They made five-of-six in that period. Telluride made a run when Chelsey Padilla got a hot hand and closed within 27-25 at the intermission. Telluride tied the score at 27-all when Casey Arnold sank two free throws at 7:37 in the third quarter. Sydney Melzer got hot in the period, scoring 13 of her 21 points. Melzer’s layup at 5:12 put THS up 32-29. Dolores didn’t give up and denied Telluride the passing lanes and picked off several and converted those into points. The Bears tied the game at 32-all at the 3:30 mark. Tracy Everett got loose underneath and Trevillian made a perfect pass which put DHS ahead 37-32. But the Miners came back strong again, thanks mainly to Melzer, and pulled within a point at 39-38 with 41 seconds left. Dolores scored the final four points to lead 43-38 when the quarter closed. "Yes, I was worried when they made that run on us after the half. We came out and played sluggishly. But we sucked it up and came back and played much better. We weren’t rebounding very well and we didn’t get some extra chances. They finally did what I asked them to do right on down the line, offensively and defensively," he added. Tracy Everett led the way 26 points and Trevillian added 21 and Reed 12. Melzer was joined in double digits by Padilla with 15 and Inga Johannson with 12. In the game against the Bulldogs, Dolores County stayed with the Bears for the fist quarter but Dolores had too much to handle in the next three quarters. Dolores led 15-11 at the end of the first period and moved out to a commanding 37-19 lead at the intermission. The Bears outscored Dove Creek 21-8 in the third and 18-9 in the fourth. Trevillian led all scorers with 23 points for DHS. McKenzie Reed poured in 15 and Joni Everett added 10. For the Bulldogs, Shandra Johnson scored 10 and Hannah Thompson added 7. Everett also pulled down 10 boards and made five steals. Dolores boys fell behind early in the first period 5-3 but tied the game at 8-8 on Saturday against the Miners. Kevin Fane put DHS up 10-8. Brady Blackmer made a turnaround in the lane which gave the Bears an 18-12 advantage. Dolores led 20-16 when the period ended. Telluride took a 21-20 lead to start the second period. Bear Waylon Bennett made a nice glide through the Miner defense to take a 24-21. Telluride led 27-26 with 3:35 to go when the Dolores defenders were standing around. But late in the period, Bennett made a steal and a layup to put DHS ahead 33-27 just as the half came to a close. Telluride went on a 6-2 run to open the third quarter and took a 37-33 lead with 5:46 showing. Dolores came back and led 42-35 at 4:05. Fane scored six of his 10 points in the period which helped the Bears stay in front. Dolores led 49-44 when the quarter ended. Blackmer’s putback gave Dolores at 54-48 lead about mid-way through the fourth. Telluride’s Scott Hemphill canned a three-pointer for Telluride which made the game close at 54-51 in favor of Dolores. Telluride held a 57-56 lead but Zion put DHS on top for good at 58-57 with 2:45 to play when he hit both free throws. Dolores increased its lead when Zion connected on two more free throws at 62-57 with 1:01 to go. Each team scored two points each the rest of the game. "We did not adjust well (when Telluride shot over the DHS zone many different times). On our defensive rotation, somebody wasn’t where they should’ve been. We change defenses almost every time down and when they were wide open, somebody blew an assignment," DHS first-year head coach Scott Story remarked after the game. "I was pleased with our balanced scoring," he added. "We had four players in double figures. We had some spurts which really helped us." Zion finished with 18 points, Bennett chipped in 14, Blackmer 11, and Fane 10. On Friday night against DCHS boys, Dolores just had too much of Keith Pierce. Pierce ended up with a triple double by scoring 23 points, pulling down 14 rebounds, and blocking 12 shots as the Bulldogs picked up its first league win at 65-59. Dove Creek led 29-25 at the half and led 46-40 at the end of three periods. Dallas Coker also popped in 21 points for DCHS. Zion led the Bears with 23. Montezuma-Cortez High School JVs poured it on a few days earlier, winning the non-conference game 79-51. "A lot of things went wrong in that game," Story recalled. "It was just a combination of things and just the fact we plain didn’t play well as a team." Cortez led 24-9 at the end of the first period and held a 39-25 lead at the intermission. MCHS outpointed Dolores 27-10 in the third but DHS did outscore MCHS 16-11 in the fourth but that came after many of the MCHS reserves were put in. Aeson Reed and Zion each scored 13 and Fane added 11. For the young Panthers, Ryan Mortensen gunned in 28, Tyler Billie scored 16 and Dustin Cosper added 10. Dolores girls and boys host Nucla this Friday, Feb. 1, with the girls tipping off about 5:45 p.m., and they visit Mancos for about a 5:45 p.m. tipoff. The Blue Jay boys won a pair of games over the weekend, nipping Nucla 62-60 at home on Friday night and edging Norwood 51-50 on the road on Saturday. On Friday night, Mancos and Nucla played close the whole game. With Mancos playing without its two big kids (Ryan Shepherd and Travis Clark because of foul troubles) MHS coach Gary Hill used various combinations. The score was tied 19-all at the end of the first quarter. MHS led 36-33 at the half. Norwood outscored Mancos 29-24 in the second half. With the score tied at60-all with a few seconds left, Kyle Yeomans saw Jordan Rubino moving along the baseline and hit him with a perfect pass. Rubino made layup for the win. "We did not play all that well offensively, but I was pleased that we came back to win the game. We are at least now winning those close games where as before (back in December) we were losing some." Clint Hill tossed in 12, Kelley Smith pumped in 10 and Yeomans, Clark, and Shepherd each added 9. "I’m always happy to see balanced scoring," coach Hill commented. "I was real pleased that we hung in there considering our big kids were in foul trouble." Yeomans made a pair of free throws late in the game for the win. Coach Hill instructed his players to back off and not foul and a Nucla player sank a three at the end of the game. Norwood held a slim 8-7 lead after the first quarter but Mancos came back and made a run late in the second half to take a 23-20 lead at the break. Mancos outscored Norwood 16-13 in the third period while Norwood made a run late in the game and outpointed the Blue Jays 17-12 in the fourth. Smith paced Mancos with 16, while Clark and Yeomans each added 12. "We had some sickness (Kent Russell didn’t play much Friday or Saturday) and Shepherd injured his knee Friday night. Again, we used a lot of different combinations. It hurt us but we did play better than we did the night before, especially defensively," coach Hill noted. Mancos will visit Telluride this Friday and host DHS Saturday. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
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