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Jan. 8, 2001
By Jim Thomas FARMINGTON — No doubt the nearly two-week layoff hurt the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity girls basketball team Saturday night, Jan. 5, in a non-conference game at Farmington High School. The Scorpions pulled away to a 52-37 win. "We did not shoot the basketball very well tonight," MCHS head girls coach Stan Yake said following the game. "We missed all those shots and then got down. It is hard to come back against a good team like Farmington has (FHS was state runner-up a year ago in New Mexico Class 4A)." The Panthers opened the game by missing their first four shots down the floor. They did not rebound on the shots they missed. The Scorpions, on the other hand, could not miss early in the first quarter, especially Shantel Adams who scored the team’s first seven points (two field goals and a three-pointer) for a 7-0 lead with 5 minutes, 46 seconds to play. Cortez finally got on the scoreboard when Lindsey Wilson made a putback. Cortez, was so cold, they also couldn’t hit from the free throw line. They made one (by Stefanie Allison) out of five attempts during the quarter. Not helping the team was turnovers. It wasn’t the Farmington press which bothered them, the Panthers just did not take care of the ball. Farmington converted many of those mistakes into points. The Scorps led 14-3 when the period ended. By that time, the Panthers had dug themselves a hole. They made a little run at Farmington early in the second quarter. Allison’s putback pulled Cortez to within five points at 14-9. Later, Sasha Yarbrough scored off a give-and-go play which pulled them within three at 15-12, but that was a close as they would come. FHS had gone cold from the floor which helped keep Cortez in the game. Caitlyn Bird’s 15-footer was the first field goal for MCHS at 2:21 which put FHS up 17-12. Farmington led 19-12 at the half. Farmington’s Dana Hanson drilled a three-pointer to get things started early in the third quarter. Those points doubled the Scorpions’ lead at 24-12 with six minutes to go. Nicole Stephens sank a pair of charity tosses which made the score 24-15 with 5:20 remaining. Allison’s layup made the score 28-17 with 3:10 left. Both teams were shooting better by this point in the game. FHS held a 35-20 lead at the end of the third period. Yarbrough drove the lane for a bucket early in the fourth quarter which got the Panthers fired up and pulled them within nine at 35-24. But slowly Farmington started pulling ahead. The Scorpions padded their lead to 43-27 with 3:06 showing. Hanson had the hot hand for Farmington in the fourth as she made five of her 11 points in the quarter. Cortez made a slight run when it fouled in going to the hoop. The remaining three minutes of the game was mostly spent at the free throw line. During that quarter Cortez made nine of 14. "We hit a few free throws in the third and fourth quarters. But we sure did miss a lot of free throws tonight," he added. Allison paced Cortez with 16 points while Yarbrough chipped in 8. Adams led Farmington with 16. Yake said his girls are making progress so far this season. "We’re getting better and better as each game goes along. We have a make-up game Tuesday (7 tonight in Ron Wright Memorial Gym) at home against (Grand County) Moab. That is our last non-conference game that we can use to tune-up for league. But I wish we had another game on the weekend. We will go about a week and half before we have another game (at home against Fruita-Monument and Central of Grand Junction on Jan. 18-19)," he said. The only other school in action was Mancos. The Blue Jay boys and girls visited Ignacio also on Saturday night. The third time was the charm for the Jays, after losing to Ignacio the first game of the season and then again in the Blue Jay Classic just before the holidays. Class 2A Mancos pulled out a thrilling 62-61 non-conference win over the Class 3A Bobcats at IHS Gym. Laramy Miller had a chance to win the game after receiving a late foul on a last-second layup, which he made. However, the referee said the clock had run out before the foul occurred. Mancos’ Travis Clark drove hard to the hole for a layup to put MHS up 62-61 with 10 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. Ignacio had gone ahead 61-60 only moments before. Clint Hill hit a short jumper which had given Mancos the lead at 60-59. Nick Rubino’s bucket a few seconds earlier had give Mancos a narrow 58-56. Ignacio led 59-58 on a free throw. "We felt like this was the best overall game we’ve played all year," MHS Gary Hill said. "It was a barn burner and great game to watch. Our kids played excellent defense. I was pleased with our intensity and we were determined." What really made Hill happy was the play of his bench — Nick and Jordan Rubino, and Preston Hennrich. "Our bench came through for us. We played sluggish the first quarter and played like it was our first game back from the Holidays. We brought in some of our other players. We pressed Ignacio in the second quarter that rattled them," he added. Ignacio held a slim 11-9 at the end of the first quarter. Mancos outscored the Bobcats 20-12 in the second period to lead 29-23 at the intermission. The two teams played nearly evenly in the third with Mancos outscoring Ignacio 18-17. But Ignacio came back in the fourth, thanks to the play of Neil and Miller, to outpoint the Jays 21-15. Kelley Smith paced Mancos with 17, Kent Russell popped in 10, and Nick Rubino 9. Ben Neil led Ignacio with 16. The Blue Jays (3-4) will take on Bayfield in Mancos on Saturday. The Bobcats, 6-4, will return to action Saturday. Jan. 12, at Dolores County in Ron Wright Memorial Gym. The Ignacio girls’ basketball team came back to snap a six-game losing streak to beat Mancos 66-43. IHS pressed which caused MHS some problems early in the first quarter. The Jays trailed big time 24-6 when the quarter ended. Mancos made some headway in the second quarter by outscoring the Bobcat bench 14-9, but still trailed 35-18 at the half. The Bobcats continued pressing in the second half but by that point Mancos had solved the problem and played IHS evenly. "They outscored us 40-39 in the second half. We just could not make up that 20-point deficit from the first quarter. But thing good is that we’ve got (lone senior) Katie Paxton back (from ankle injury)," MHS head coach Kevin Dimmick reported. IHS got balanced scoring. Stephanie Rivera hit four treys and finished with a game-high 20 points. Teammate Katie Whiteskunk tossed 15, and Reagena Thompson scored 10. The Blue Jays saw only Jori Yeomans score in double figures with 12 while Cambria Hanson added 8 and Jolene Thomas 7. The Jays will host Bayfield on Saturday beginning around 5 p.m. in the Mancos Performance Center. Dolores girls and boys finally return to action off the break when they host Bayfield on Friday night, Jan. 11.
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
