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December 11, 2001
By Jim Thomas AZTEC, N.M. — Any time a small school varsity plays a larger school junior varsity, the game generally boils down to juniors and seniors pounding on freshman and sophomores. Such was the case Saturday night, Dec. 8, at Aztec High School. Dolores girls and boys basketball teams pounded on Aztec’s JV teams. The Bear girls crushed the young Tigers 63-28. The Bear boys whipped the Tiger JVs 74-36 in non-conference action. The Dolores girls improved to 3-2 on the young season. The Dolores boys improved to 2-1. DHS girls pressed throughout the whole game. Sarah Nielson made a nice steal and consequent layup to put the Bears up 4-0 with 6 minutes, 03 seconds to go in the first quarter. Dolores used a half-court trap which stymied the young Tigers. Dolores moved out to an 8-1 lead when Aztec called time with 5:37 left. The Tigers trimmed the lead to 10-5 but the Bears outhustled the Tigers to take a 12-7 lead when the period ended. Jennifer Trevillian popped in a three-pointer to open the second quarter. However, the Bears from
that point on for the remainder of the period when cold. They missed layups, putbacks, short jumpers and free throws. They held a 17-7 lead with 4:14 to play. Tracy Everett, just before the half expired, made two straight layups to put Dolores up 25-9. "I hate to look at what we shot (3-19) in the first half," DHS coach Rob Mellott said immediately following the game. "The nice thing is that we came back and shot better in the second half." Third quarter action saw both teams play pretty good defense. Amanda Cross made a putback to put the Bears up 31-13 mid-way through the third period. Trevillian converted one of two charity tosses to give the Bears a 35-15 lead with 2:24 showing. Dolores led 39-19 when the quarter was over. Trevillian took control of the game in the fourth quarter. She made three layups in a row off fast breaks to put the Bears up 47-19. Dolores almost scored at will. The Bears led 53-23 with 3:07 left. Melissa Schmitt canned a three which put the Bears up 53-23. Dolores would outscore AHS 10-5 the rest of the game. Everett and Trevillian each scored 15 for the Bears. "We controlled the tempo of the game. We played very good defense and controlled the inside. We shot just above 50 percent from the line. Our goal is to shoot 60 percent. It was a good win because we won on the road," Mellott added. On Friday night, Dec. 7, at Bayfield, Dolores didn’t have any problems winning 49-29. DHS led only 5-3 after the first quarter and built a 20-14 advantage at the break. They outscored the Wolverines 16-9 in the third and 13-9 in the fourth. The Bears played solid defense and capitalized on many missed BHS attempts from the floor. During the early moments of the game, Bayfield missed its first 16 shots. DHS also had problems finding the bottom of the net, making only two of 11 tries in the first half. Bayfield turned the ball over 31 times, according to Mellott. He said the girls turned many of those into fast-break buckets. DHS just outhustled Bayfield all game long. "Our dense played hard. I think we came out with a little higher intensity level and made some shots and played good defense. What I liked about this game was that we got a lot of" Mellott remarked. Everett paced DHS with 9 points while Trevillian added 8. McKenzie Reed and Joni Everett pumped in 6 each. Six Wolverines had four points each. DHS girls played in the Meeker Tournament to open the 2001-02 season. They feel 64-57 to North Park in the opener. Dolores got off to a slow start and could never quite catchup. Cross scored 16 for DHS in that game. The Bears took on Snake River, Wyo., in the second game and fell 50-44. Snake River led 32-22 at the half and then the two teams nearly traded shot for shot in the second half. Ashley Reed paced DHS with 12 and Trevillian added 11. Dolores blasted host Meeker 77-38 in the final game of the tourney. Tracy Everett led all scorers with 20, Trevillian added 12, Amanda Cross 10, and Ashley Reed 10. The Dolores boys also had no problems with AHS. Dolores pressed and Aztec basically folded. At the 4:20 mark in the first period, Dolores led 10-2. The Tigers did cut the lead to 10-5 at 2:41. Cullen Zion sank a trey which took the Bears to a 13-5 lead. Dolores continued to score transition baskets. Aeson Reed scored on a layup at the buzzer which made the score 19-7. Kevin Fane nailed a three which put the Bears up 24-9 with 6:10 showing in the second quarter. Dolores was running hard. Keenan Lovett muscled in a shot underneath at 29-11. DHS led 38-17 at the intermission. Dolores, when forced to set up, showed patience and worked the ball around with its motion offense. Reed was loose underneath and scored to put Dolores up 42-19 with 5:23 to go in the third quarter. Dolores was on an 8-2 run. Aztec’s Jason Clark did make a nice putback, but DHS led 46-21 with 4:21 showing. A steal and layup by Reed put the Bears ahead comfortably at 55-26 when the quarter ended. To start the fourth quarter, Story cleared his bench. Brady Blackmer dashed down court for a layup to make the score 59-26. Dolores increased its lead to 63-28 with 4:37 remaining. Chad Hanson scored eight points by himself to put Dolores up 69-30 at the 2:53 mark. A pair of free throws by Lovett put Dolores up 72-31 with 1:26 left. "Our defense created opportunities for our offense," Story said following the game. "Our speed and agility paid off. Our transition game was really working well. That is what we are going to need to do in order to be successful." Dolores defeated Bayfield 70-53 on Friday night. The Bears moved out to a 24-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back. The game was played evenly, though, through the remaining three quarters. Zion led all scores with a career-high 38 points. Matt Gonzales dropped in 21 for Bayfield. "Zion couldn’t be stopped," Story reported. "I think Bayfield made 30 turnovers off our press. We also went to the line a lot. We made 32 free throws. Our defense really played well." Mancos traveled to Bayfield Saturday night. The MHS boys lost another close game, falling 71-68 in overtime. Bayfield’s Eric Nelson, who scored 24 on the night, made the tieing basket at the buzzer in regulation. The Blue Jays came from 15 points down in the third quarter to take a 59-56 lead mid-way through the fourth. The Class 3A Wolverines recaptured the lead 62-61 on Jake Harrington’s steal and basket with 28 ticks left. Kyle Yeomans made a trey which put Mancos ahead 64-62 with 16 seconds left. Bayfield’s Scott Piccoli just missed the mark when Nelson grabbed the rebound and put it back in as the buzzer sounded. One official waved off the shot but a conference was called and the officials decided the shot was good and the game went into overtime tied at 64-all. Nick Rubino’s steal and layup for Mancos tied the overtime at 68 with 1:20 remaining. Nelson gave Bayfield a 70-68 lead with 23 seconds left in overtime. Mancos’ Clint Hill, who had 10 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, and Yeomans missed a 3-pointer. Nelson then grabbed a loose ball, was fouled and made one of two free throws to ice the game with less than a second left. MHS coach Gary Hill was not happy because Mancos blew a 45-30 lead at the intermission. Mancos also outscored Bayfield 22-11 in the third. Gonzales had 12 points on four 3-pointers for Bayfield, and Piccoli also had 12. For Mancos, Kelley Smith had 14. Travis Clark finished with 12. Meanwhile, the MHS girls lost a heartbreaker, 35-32 to BHS. The Wolverines jumped out to an 11-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the Jays trailed 18-14 at the half. Mancos oupointed Bayfield 9-6 in the third but BHS outscored MHS 11-9 in the fourth. "We got the lead mid-way through the third quarter and we held it until the last minute," MHS head coach Kevin Dimmick remarked. "But we played pretty well and I was not disappointed." Cambria Hanson paced MHS with 13 while Katie Paxton chipped in 12. Jackie Shaw and Kim Piccoli each scored 9 for Bayfield.
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