Panther boys, girls pick up quarterfinal wins at District VII

Panther boys, girls pick up quarterfinal wins at District VII

Feb. 24, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

Montezuma-Cortez High School boys and girls picked up victories Thursday night, Feb. 22, in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A District VII Basketball Tournament being held at Mesa State College and Grand Junction High School.

The no. 2 seeded Panther boys edged no. 7 seed Palisade 60-57 to advance into Friday night’s semifinals (no other details were available at press time) against Rifle. A win in that game would put them into the finals at 7:45 p.m. today, Feb. 24, in the Mesa State College Fieldhouse. A loss would put them into the third-place game at 4:15.

Rifle defeated Moffat County 58-52. Steamboat Springs defeated Battle Mountain, an upset winner over Delta in a pigtail game on Tuesday night, 39-28. Steamboat Springs was to face Montrose, a 60-57 winner over Glenwood Springs in the other semifinals.

The District VII Basketball Tournament for girls saw no. 5 Cortez beat no. 7 Steamboat Springs 47-44 Thursday night at GJHS Gym. No other information as available at press time Friday morning.

In other quarterfinal games, Moffat County clobbered Delta 64-23, Rifle stopped Palisade 44-35, and Montrose outlasted Glenwood Springs 48-43. In Friday’s semifinals it was MCHS against Moffat County and Rifle versus Montrose. The winners of those games meet at 6 p.m. today for the championship. The losers will play at 2:30 today for third place. All of those games move to Mesa State College today.

If the Panther boys or the Panther girls can finish at least among the top two teams they will like get to host a Regional game this coming week. A third-place finish is "iffy" for hosting.

Class 4A will have a completely different setup for Regoinals than in past years. This year the top five teams from District VII will join three qualifiers from District I, seven from District II, four from District III, five from District IV, five from District V, and three from District VI in a 32-team bracket with seedings to take place on Sunday, Feb. 25. The highest seeded teams from the respective district tournaments will get home games during next week (probably Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday arangement).

The final eight boys and girls teams will then go to the Class 2A State Basketball Tournament with the boys playing in the Pepsi Center while the girls will be at the Denver Coliseum, March 8-10.

In a rather interesting development, Southwestern League mate (Class 5A) Central of Grand Junction girls will be without the services of their coach for the Warriors’ play in post-season action. Central High School girls basketball coach Leah Gonyeau was suspended for the remainder of the season after an alleged violation of school rules was brought to light earlier in the week. According to reports, it was a "personnel issue" and she was suspended from her teaching duties for the remainder of the school year as well. The suspension also included her assistant Lanton Kame. Steve Phillips, who resigned last season as the head boys coach to concentrate his new athletic director duties, is the interim coach. Two of Gonyeau's assistants, Mike Gear and Tracy Altergott, will help Phillips through the playoffs. Gonyeau was in her eighth season as the girls varsity coach, and she coached the Warriors to a 12-7 overall regular-season record.