The Ignacio Bobcats have held steady as the No. 3-ranked team in the state in Class 2A in CHSAAnow.com’s last two polls.
On Thursday, Dec. 17, the Dolores Bears got a firsthand look at why the Bobcats have been so highly touted this season.
The Bobcats came out in a full-court press, and the hurried Bears seemed eager to give up the rock.
Ignacio senior Anthony Manzanares was happy to accept the donations and immediately score.
Manzanares scored the Bobcats’ first 10 points on two layups and two three-pointers, and all his team-high 15 points came in the first quarter.
The Bobcats swarmed the Bears mercilessly, jumping out to a 20-0 lead before Branden Donaldson got the Bears on the board with 1:30 left in the first quarter.
Ignacio led 31-2 to start the second, and Dolores managed just five points in the quarter to enter halftime down 42-7.
The Bears jumped around from man and zone defense, trying to find a look to slow the Bobcat offense.
“We were just trying to find anything,” said head coach Larry Schwartz. “They just have so many weapons. They beat you inside, outside, if you go man they run the backscreen.”
“We were telling the kids how to stop it,” he continued. “And we stopped it the first time, and then three more times they just beat us on it.”
When Dolores went to a 2-3 zone, Ignacio spaced players around the arc and swung the ball around the perimeter with cutters slicing through the lane.
The Bobcats hit 11 three-pointers in the contest and finished with a 72-30 win.
Dolores trailed 56-10 entering the final quarter, but the Bears were able to tally 20 points to finish with 30.
Justin Purkat led the team with eight points, Ruben Gomez had six, Branden Donaldson scored five and Jalen Balderrama and Ben Lykins added four each.
“All we can tell them is to try and get better,” Schwartz said following the loss. “We’re going to tweak some things here after the holiday.”
“We’ve obviously got to put in another offense and set some more screens,” he continued. “Especially against a team like that.”