Throughout the history of Montezuma-Cortez High School’s basketball program, scores of talented players have donned the team’s orange-and-white jerseys and represented their school with pride.
No player had scored more than 40 points in a contest until Dec. 8, however, when Panthers junior Teagan Whiteskunk went off for a school-record 43 points during his team’s 94-38 victory over Ridgway.
“It feels great, man,” said Whiteskunk, who broke Davin Bond’s single-game scoring record of 40 points set in 1982. “I’ve been trying to get the (record) since last year, and this game, I knew I could get it. I came out fired up.”
While the central storyline of the contest was Whiteskunk’s record, the junior’s impressive point total would not have been possible absent M-CHS’ pressure defense, which forced multiple turnovers and led to several easy buckets.
Senior guard Michael Diaz came up with five steals over the first five minutes of the game, and Whiteskunk drilled two long 3-pointers and scored 14 points in the opening quarter as M-CHS opened up a 29-10 lead by the end of the first.
“We do a lot of trapping and a lot of pressing,” said M-CHS head coach Michael Hall. “We want our defense to turn into offense, and we have a lot of quick guys, so we have to take advantage of that.”
As M-CHS continued to apply pressure throughout the second quarter, Ridgway players appeared to become increasingly demoralized and after a layup by senior Jens Jorgenson, a layup by junior Titus Jackson, and two layups by Whiteskunk, the Panthers found themselves ahead 47-15.
After Whiteskunk was fouled at the halftime buzzer and converted two free throws to close out the half and put his team ahead 51-17, thoughts of the school scoring record began to creep into the junior’s mind.
“When I scored 20 in the half, I was like, alright, I should try and get it,” Whiteskunk said. “Everyone cheered me on, and the defense helped me out a lot. I have great teammates.”
With the school scoring record in sight and Ridgway’s defense doing their best to slow him down, Whiteskunk drilled three 3-pointers and scored 17 total points in the third quarter as stunned defenders looked on.
Two free throws gave Whiteskunk 37 points with 4:17 left in the game, and a breakaway layup moments later put the junior within one point of the record. A layup with under two-minutes left proved to be the record-breaker, and a final fast-break layup capped off the historic afternoon.
After Hall pulled Whiteskunk from the game with just under a minute left, M-CHS fans stood and cheered their approval while teammates smiled and congratulated Whiteskunk on his accomplishment.
“You have to let him go for the record, and everybody will get theirs after that,” Diaz said. “We just needed to stay focused and treat this like a regular game.”
While Whiteskunk’s 43 points stole the show, several other M-CHS players enjoyed success on the offensive end as Jackson scored 14 points, Diaz scored 13 points, and Jorgensen scored 8.
The victory pushed the team’s record to 5-0 overall this season. The Panthers’ next contest will take place at home against Mancos on Dec. 20.
“We just have to keep playing hard and practice like we do,” Whiteskunk said. “We just have to keep winning games.”
If the Panthers junior keeps scoring even close to as many points as he did Saturday, it seems more than likely that plenty more wins will come over the course of the season.