Luis Perry scored 25 points to lead the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers (3-6) to an 80-70 win over the Centauri Falcons (2-6) on Thursday night.
The Panthers got out to a 14-9 first-quarter lead thanks to sharp shooting by their guards.
Jasen Engel and Quanah Casey each connected on 3-pointers in the first quarter and senior Aron Engel knocked down two.
Then Casey, Daniel Fernandez and Coby Baer hit 3-pointers in the second quarter to send M-CHS to halftime with a 39-28 lead.
“We’ve had a couple streaky games where we’ve shot well and a couple where we haven’t,” said head coach Mike Hall. “And I wanted the kids to just shoot the ball tonight. And they did well.”
The Panthers connected on nine 3-pointers in the contest, but in the second half, most of their scoring came right at the rim.
Centauri went to a full-court press, but the Panthers were able to breakaway for easy layups.
“That’s probably a bad move to press us,” Hall said. “Because we’re so guard-heavy that we can handle a press.”
M-CHS’ guards maneuvered through the pressure in the backcourt and were able to find Perry leaking out for wide-open buckets. Perry scored 11 points in the third quarter and another six in the fourth.
M-CHS built its largest lead in the third quarter, getting up by 21, but the Falcons fought back to within six points.
“We’d make a really big run and then we’d sub in and they’d close in and make a big run,” said Hall. “We’ve just got to work on our bench getting to the level that our starters are at.”
“I called a timeout right then and I just told them, ‘You guys have got to want it. You need to get back up by 25 because there are other guys on the bench that want to play.’”
The Panthers responded by finishing the third quarter with a 66-51 lead, and then they closed out the fourth quarter to win 80-70.
Perry led all scorers with 25, Aron Engel hit three 3-pointers and finished with 12, Casey also knocked down three triples, and he and Jason Engel each added nine points and Fernandez scored in each quarter to finish with eight.
The Panthers win comes as a boost of confidence after falling to Pagosa Springs (6-3), 55-24 on Tuesday.
“We came out really good,” Hall said of Tuesday’s loss. “We looked sharp and were actually ahead at the end of the first quarter. Then Luis [Perry] and Austin [Bayles] both got in foul trouble and it just fell apart from there.”
M-CHS’ next contest is in Alamosa on Saturday. The Maroons are 5-4 on the season, but currently sit at No. 8 in CHSAANow’s Class 3A rankings.
“We’re going to have to really play well there,” Hall said. “We just need to do what we’ve been doing, the way we played tonight and the way we played against Ignacio. If we play like that we’ll be fine.”