The Dolores boys basketball team appears to be very comfortable in first-year coach Larry Schwartz system.
The Bears kicked off the new year with two dominating San Juan Basin League wins on Friday and Saturday.
Dolores picked apart Nucla at home first, 72-18, then took its show on the road to Ouray the next day, winning 47-29.
Although the Bears play a fast, uptempo offense, its defense thats really becoming the new mantra.
We set a goal before the game to hold them under 25 points, and thats what we got done, Schwartz said. The boys love that trapping defense. We want to hold them (Ouray) under 30 tomorrow. Thats our goal.
Dolores (4-4, 2-0 2A/1A SJBL) opened up against Nucla on a 15-2 run and led 19-4 after the first quarter.
The Bears lead doubled their lead to 40-10 at halftime.
Junior captain point guard Cody Carroll did his thing with four 3-pointers on the way to a 30 point night.
It was midway through the third quarter when Schwartz put in the reserves. Dolores nearly pitched a shutout in the third frame, as it out-scored the Mustangs 16-1 to lead 56-11 after three.
The Bears bench kept Nucla at bay in the fourth to post a 54-point win, the largest for Dolores this season.
They were chomping at the bits, Schwartz said. (Alex) Goodwin is stepping up really hard. He plays real hard inside. We got Austin Blackmer back tonight (from injury). That helped the offense out a lot tonight.
Goodwin helped the Bears with 10 points. Carroll out-scored Nucla, 30-18.
Its awesome, you know. All weve been working on this whole week is get the ball, get it up as fast as you can, play uptempo, Carroll said. Were a really fast team. Its working. Its working on defense, too. We always know where we are. Im really excited for this season. I had a lot of fun today.
Against Ouray on Saturday, Dolores started slow, but finished fast. The Bears reached their goal of holding Ouray under 30 points with a balanced scoring offense to start league play 2-0.
We had a balance of scoring and thats what I really like to see. Everyone got involved, Schwartz said. Were 2-0 in league play and thats what we want going into Tuesday against Ignacio. They havent lost in a long time and we hope we can be the team to finally beat them.
Dolores will host defending SJBL champion Ignacio on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.