Had the Montezuma-Cortez High School basketball team secured more rebounds, a Jan. 14 home game against Pagosa Springs may have ended differently. Dominated under the basket throughout the night however, the Panthers lost 56-37.
“We got killed underneath the basket,” said M-CHS head coach Michael Hall. “Pagosa is tough. They won state a few years ago, and they have a good program going. That’s where we need to get to.”
M-CHS forward Walter Parker scored 10 points, and sophomore center Seth Long added 9. Despite the Panthers’ ability to score the ball from the low block, however, Parker was not pleased with his team’s play inside.
“We need to be more aggressive, especially on our rebounding,” said Parker. “If you rebound, you’re going to win basketball games. With the height we have, we should be outrebounding everybody.”
Struggling make shots throughout the first sixteen minutes of the contest, M-CHS scored just 16 points in the first half. Thanks to its solid man-to-man defense however, M-CHS entered the break trailing 21-16.
“We played good defense, but we had some breakdowns,” said Panthers senior Hayden Plewe. “When you play defense for about a minute on every possession, somebody is bound to get out of position.”
The Panthers cut Pagosa’s lead to 21-18 after senior Randy Haley shook off a double team and scored from the right block on M-CHS’ first possession of the third quarter.
A fast-break layup by senior Taylor Wilson with 3:13 left in the third quarter cut Pagosa’s lead to 27-24 and after Parker scored a layup with three seconds left in the quarter, the Panthers trailed 35-30 entering the fourth.
“We finally started moving the ball around the perimeter (during the third quarter),” said Hall. “We were getting the ball inside so our big guys could go to work.”
M-CHS cut the Pirates lead to 35-33 after a three-point play by Parker and trailed 37-35 with 5:51 left after an offensive rebound and put back by senior Jonathan Walck.
Pirates reserve Mike Kuhl provided a spark off the bench however, scoring eight of his 12 points during a 15-2 run by Pagosa to close out the game.
“We hit a dry spell,” said Plewe. “In the fourth quarter, we couldn’t hit a bucket.”
Senior Josh Lane led Pagosa with 15 points, and freshman Isiah Griego added 10. Win the win, the Pirates improved to 5-4 on the season.
With their record now at 5-4 on the season, M-CHS will return to practice to prepare for a home matchup against Alamosa on Jan. 17.
“A loss makes you really look at what you need to do and what you need to work on,” said Parker. “What a team does after a loss is more important than what a team does after a win. We need to bounce back, play harder the next game and (beat) Alamosa.”