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Jan. 10, 2001
By Jim Thomas Both the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity girls game Tuesday night, Jan. 8, against Grand County (Moab, Utah) and the MCHS boys game Monday night, Jan. 7, against Aztec, N.M. were nothing more than shoot arounds for the Panthers. Both teams scored lopsided non-conference victories. The Panther girls crushed the Red Devils 93-15 while the Panther boys clobbered the Tigers 123-27 in Ron Wright Memorial Gym. The 123 points was a new single-game boys team scoring record. Ironically, the previous record was 115 points set during the 1997-98 season against Aztec. It was not known if the 93 points were a single-game record for the girls. "It wasn’t the type of game I was hoping for," MCHS head girls coach Stan Yake said following the game. "But I did get to experiment with a few things. We got to work on our 1-3-1 matchup zone and man press." The Panther girls, who improved to 6-4 on the season, pressed and Grand County made turnovers. Those turnovers were quickly turned into baskets. Amanda Frazier started the game by making an easy layup by the time Casie Johnson had hit a soft 10-footer, MCHS was up 7-0 with 5 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half. Cortez not only got transition baskets, but when they did set up it was able to work the ball inside with crisp passes. They increased their lead to 19-2 when Stefanie Allison knocked down a trey from the top of the key. It wasn’t until less than a minute was left when Vanessa Dolphin made a field goal for the Red Devils. Cortez led 25-4 when the period came to an end. "I thought we got good guard play. I thought our play off the ball was good because we moved our feet and passed the ball to where the girls were under the hole," he said. Cortez increased its lead early in the second period to 30-4 with 7:02 showing. Allison dominated underneath, almost scoring at will. She pumped in 13 of her game-high 20 points during the quarter. The Panthers increased their lead over the hapless Red Devils to 47-4 with 2:08 left. Cortez led by a commanding 55-4 at the intermission.
Brittany Whiteman made a follow and then moments later made a steal and layup which put Cortez up 63-5 with 4:05 left in the third quarter. Hannah Mortensen drove the lane to give Cortez a 67-7 advantage at the 3:32 mark. MCHS continued to play well on the perimeter and the inside. MCHS led 73-8 with 1:30 left and held a 75-11 lead when the quarter ended. Lindsey Wilson opened the fourth when she drove the lane to put Cortez up 77-11. Cortez 1-3-1 zone further confused Grand County. The Red Devils made more turnovers. Johnson’s layup at the 2:38 mark put the Panthers up 89-15. Sasha Yarbrough drove the lane for an easy bucket for a 91-15 lead and she followed that up with another layup seconds later. "Offensively overall I thought we had one of our best games. Defensively, I thought the girls executed the 1-3-1 and pressed well," he added. Joining Allison scoring in double digits were Johnson with 14, Whiteman 13, Yarbrough 12, Nicole Stephens 11, and Wilson 10. The Panthers girls will not play again until they open Southwestern League play at Fruita-Monument and Central of Grand Junction on Jan. 18-19. "We will work on trying to correct our weaknesses and on fundamentals. We want to increase our level of intensity both in practice and during games. We talked about taking our game to the next level and not drop to a lower level," Yake noted. The Panther boys, who improved to 8-1 overall, took it to the Tigers right away. When Marcus Mortensen canned a three from the corner Cortez was up 7-0 with 8:22 showing in the first quarter. Cortez utilized its height advantage. The twin towers of Layne Frazier and Kyle Wilson crashed the boards for offensive rebounds on the few shots that were missed. They both swatted several shots away and scored underneath from passes by the guards. Cortez pressed hard on defense, creating lots of turnovers and easy transition buckets. A putback by Frazier gave MCHS a 19-0 lead with 3:33 on the clock. Already, MCHS head boys coach Wade Mortensen was substituting freely. Cortez increased its lead to 25-0 at 1:39. It wasn’t until just 22 seconds were left when Jesse Locke made the first basket for the Tigers. Cortez led 28-2 when the quarter ended. "You have to give credit to our guys. They worked hard on their own coming off the break and they went right to work," Coach Mortensen said following the game. Not only were the Panthers working the ball inside well, they were sinking shot afte shot from the outside. Marcus Mortensen sank a pair of threes in the quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 23. Mike Rivas popped in 8 of his 16 in the quarter. Wilson’s layup off a feed from Frazier put Cortez up 30-2. Locke scored four points in a row for the Tigers. Jeff Anderson pulled up for a three which put MCHS ahead 42-6 with 4:43 showing. The Panthers led 69-10 at the half. The Panthers continued to press early in the third quarter, forcing more turnovers. "That was one of things we wanted to work on before starting league next week. We also wanted to work on our matchup out of the 2-3. It was important that we come out of the half and not let up," he commented. MCHS canned four three-pointers in the third quarter. Rivas made two of them while both Marcus and Ryan Mortensen made the others. Frazier made several nice tip-ins during the period. Cortez led 94-17 when the quarter ended. Wilson made a dunk off an alley-oop feed from Marcus Mortensen to open the fourth period. That brought the Panther fans to their feet. Wilson followed a few minutes later with a tip which put the Panthers over the century mark at 101-19 with still 6:02 to go. The Panthers, who did not score a point for a little more than two minutes, came back with scoring flurry the final two minutes of the game. Cortez inceased its lead to 118-26 with 45 seconds left. That was enough for the school record. But they added a few more, including a three by Gabe Evans at the buzzer. "When I saw that we were getting close to setting the school record for single-game scoring, I went ahead and put the starters back in," Coach Mortensen added. Marcus Mortensen led the way with 23 points, Frazier knocked down 21, Rivas 16, Archibeque 15, Wilson 14, Evans 13, and Anderson 11. Locke led Aztec with 6. The Panther boys also play at Fruita and Central on Jan. 18-19. "I told our guys this would be the easiest game they would play all season. I told them it is only going to get much harder with league and district play coming up," he said. Dolores County boys and girls basketball teams visit Cortez JVs today, Jan. 10. It will mark those teams’ first game of the 2002 portion of the schedule. Tipoff for the girls will be at 5:30 p.m. at Cortez Middle School Gym. The boys’ game will follow 15 minutes later. DCHS boys are led by Lyle Joe and Keith Pierce while the girls are led by Shandra Johnson and Tia Wood. Dolores High boys and girls basketball teams finally return to action at home against Bayfield on Friday night, Jan. 11. Tipoff for the girls will be about 6 p.m. and the boys will play 15 minutes after conclusion of that game. Dolores boys are led by Cullen Zion while the no. 5 Class 2A ranked girls are led by Jennifer Trevillian. Mancos boys and girls get back on the floor again beginning around 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, at home against Bayfield. Also on Saturday, the Bears visit Durango JVs while Dove Creek hosts Ignacio at MCHS. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
