Playing in the first round of the Class 2A Region 3 Tournament in Grand Junction on March 6, the Mancos High School boys basketball team defeated Vail Christian 65-56 to move one step closer to a berth in the state tournament.
"We didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but I thought that defensively, we were solid," said Mancos head coach Rodney Cox.
Keying the Mancos victory were big nights from senior forward Daniel Christensen and junior center Ro Paschal, who together dominated on the offensive glass and scored 20 points each.
"Ro and Daniel did a really good job rebounding for us," Cox said. "We were zero for thirteen from the perimeter in the first half and our big guys cleaned up a lot of those misses."
Also coming up big for Mancos was senior guard Jayden Peacock, whose defensive intensity and timely scoring made a decisive difference in the game.
"I thought that Jayden had his best game of the year," said Cox. "He was everywhere on the floor and played a big role for us."
With its record now at 16-6 on the year, Mancos will next play against Meeker (21-1) in the Class 2A Region 3 Championship with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
The game is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. on March 7 and can be heard live on the radio at 98.7 FM.
Mancos played Meeker in the championship of the Cowboy Shootout Tournament on Dec. 13 and lost 66-63.
"We played them earlier in the year and neither one of us was very good then," said Cox. "It's going to be a fun game. We match up really well with them. It's going to come down to which team has the least amount of turnovers."