The final weekend (Feb. 16-17) of basketball in the Class 2A ranks ended without a lot surprises. The teams that should have won did and the underdogs didn’t.

Both the Mancos High School boys and girls finished their respective seasons this past Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, with games at Telluride and home to Dolores.

With a sweep of Telluride (89-49) and Dolores (66-60), the Blue Jay boys finished as the no. 2 seed from the San Juan Basin League.

The Blue Jay boys had little trouble bouncing Telluride Friday night. Mancos started out slowly trailing 11-7 at the end of the first quarter before pulling barely ahead at 23-22 at the half.

"We were slow and sluggish in the first half," MHS head boys coach Gary Hill said. "We just didn’t get anything done. We had a long talk at the half."

The Jays came out strong in the third quarter and played very good offense and defense. The defense limited the Miners to only eight points in the quarter while it created many offensive opportunities as the Jays exploded for 35 points. The Jays continued applying the pressure defensively and poured in the points in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Miners 31-19.

"We just did an outstanding job in the third quarter," Hill added.

Mancos got balanced scoring as Kelley Smith and Jesse Rousset gunned in 24 each. Bill Baker and Travis Clark added 14 apiece. Kevin Ludwig paced Telluride with 18.

On Saturday, Rousset sank six free throws down the stretch to lead the Jays over Dolores. Mancos outscored the Bears 22-14 in the final period to get the win. Dolores led 15-11 at the end of the first and 25-24 at the half. The teams played almost evenly in the third with Dolores outpointing them 21-20.

"It was just a great game to be a part of," Hill reported. "It went back and forth and was a great battle."

Baker scored 20 while Kyle Yeomans and Rousset added 14 each. Justin Schmitt hit 19, Cullen Zion and Aeson Reed 11, and Waylon Bennett 10.

The Blue Jays boys finished with a 5-2 league mark with a 10-6 overall record.

On Saturday, the Mancos girls were up by a point with about a minute to go when the Jays lost the ball. Telluride came up with the ball and scored to go ahead by a point.

"We got several nice looks. We missed, got the rebound, and then missed. That’s just the way it went," MHS head girls coach Kevin Dimmick recalled. "It was close the whole way."

Telluride outscored the Jays 13-6 in the fourth quarter. Mancos led 13-6 at the end of the first and led 23-18 at the half. Neither team could get much going in the third quarter. Mancos led 29-23 at the end of three quarters. But the Miners battled hard in the final stanza to pull out the win.

Chelsea Padilla and Rae DePagter led Telluride with 14 and 12, respectively. Katie Paxton tossed in 10 while Rachel Russell and Kerri Morgan chipped in eight each.

The Blue Jays hosted Dolores in the regular season finale. Dolores led 16-8 and was up comfortably at 37-15 at the intermission. Dolores added 17 in the third and 22 in the fourth while Mancos connected for 16 in both periods of the second half.

Tracy Everett led Dolores with 20 while Jennifer Trevillian and Amanda Cross tossed in 14 each. Morgan scored a game-high 24 for Mancos. Cross cleaned the glass for 11 rebounds while Trivillian dished out 12 assists.

The Mancos girls finished the regular season at 2-5 and 7-9.

Dolores edged Nucla in its closest game of the season, 49-46 at home on Friday night. The girls raced out to a 21-8 lead after the first period but was outscored in the other three quarters. Trevillian led the effort with 14 points and Amber Simmons scored 12. The Mustangs picked up more rebounds, 44-34.

The Bears finished the regular season with a perfect 10-0 league mark and a sparkling 19-0 overall record under first-year head coach Rob Mellott.

Dolores County boys won three games last week, beating Telluride in a makeup game 70-69, defeated Norwood 48-44, and dropped Telluride again 65-53. The Bulldogs ended the regular season at 2-6 and 4-13.

In the first game against the Miners, Dolores County jumped out to an 18-11 lead after the first period of play. But they had to hold on at the end. The Mavericks had a chance to win the game with a three-pointer but tossed the ball inside for a score with one-second left. DCHS missed several free throws down the stretch which would have iced the game. Keith Pierce netted 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Chris Kail scored 19 and handed out 11 assists.

"They were not motivated to play defense in that game," DCHS head boys coach Scott Crawford said. "We should not have allowed them to score 69 points. That’s just about all I can say about that one."

The Bulldogs had another close one against Norwood. DCHS led 19-12 at the half but was outscored 32-29 in the second half.

Kail paced the Bulldogs with 17 points. Pierce recorded a double double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

"Again, we missed some front ends of one-and-ones with about two minutes to go. With about 10 seconds left Norwood scored which made the game closer than it really should have been," Crawford added.

The Bulldogs finished the regular season by hosting Telluride at Dolores. They got off to a slow start and then played pretty good defense the rest of the way, according to Crawford.

"We were tight in the beginning (Telluride led 15-11 at the end of the first quarter)," he recalled. "But we finally got warmed up and outscored them 54-38 the rest of the way."

Pierce had a great game, scoring 26 (12-16 from the floor) and grabbed 19 boards and made five blocked shots. Kail tossed in 15 and Coker chipped in eight. DCHS boys played Telluride Wednesday night (after deadline) in the District III Pigtail Game at Montezuma-Cortez High School.

Dolores County girls lost 61-39 to Telluride and 55-42 to Norwood to end the regular season at 0-8 and 3-13.