After starting the season 5-0, the Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panthers have dropped five consecutive games to fall to .500.
The Lady Panthers are winless since returning from the holiday break, losing four straight in January.
But their struggles aren’t from a lack of effort.
Their recent schedule has been a murderers’ row.
Each of M-CHS’ last four opponents have either been ranked in CHSAANow’s Class 3A poll or received votes in the Top 10 poll.
First, the Lady Panthers took now No. 9 Monte Vista (7-3) to overtime before falling, 51-39 at home on Jan. 9.
Then, last Tuesday, the Panthers fell to No. 1 Pagosa Springs (9-0).
M-CHS head coach John McHenry said that coming into the game, Pagosa Springs was beating teams 36-10 on average in the first half, and that his team’s goal was to hold them to 50 points in the game.
The Panthers lost 49-25, but by holding the high-powered Pagosa Springs offense to 49 points in the contest, McHenry called it a moral victory.
After falling to the No. 1 team, the Lady Panthers hosted the then No. 4 Centauri Falcons (10-1) on Thursday, losing their third straight, 50-29.
Finally, on Saturday, the Panthers lost their fourth consecutive game, falling 51-38 to Alamosa (4-6).
Instead of pointing towards his team’s schedule as an excuse for their recent struggles, McHenry sees it as a silver lining.
He believes the Lady Panthers’ rigorous schedule will benefit the team in the long run.
“That’s the beauty of this league,” he said. “This is the toughest league in the state as far as 3A.”
McHenry also notes that all of the teams in the Class 3A Intermountain league will play each other twice during the regular season, and he’s looking forward to the opportunity to seek revenge against teams that beat the Lady Panthers the first go-round.
“I felt that we should have beaten Monte Vista and we can beat (Centauri),” McHenry said. “And I feel that we can give Pagosa a better game that what we did.”
“I believe in these girls,” he continued. “We’ve just got to execute the entire game.”