Another nail biter? Of course.
Who wouldn’t have it any other way in the Mancos and Dolores boys basketball rivalry.
Except this time, bragging rights weren’t the only thing at stake — it was the season.
Telluride received the tiebreaker by coin flip over Mancos for the three seed at the 2A District III tournament in Cortez. That means Mancos is the four seed and hosted fifth seed Dolores Tuesday night in a pigtail game for the right to move on.
It was another game decided in the final minutes, another game decided by six points or less, another game where hearts were broken, another game where hearts filled with joy, another game, where the home team won.
Mancos led most of the way and Kolton Miller finally sank his free throws at the end, as Mancos held off Dolores, 44-38.
“We’ve been practicing on making those big shots. We hoped we’d make the big shots tonight,” Bluejays coach Mike Glover said. “Dolores did such a good job last time (on Feb. 4). You got to tip your hat to Dolores. They showed up ready to play. Coach (Larry) Schwartz did a good job. All those boys hustled and they made their own shots, too. It was a good, fun game and we knew it would be.”
A packed Mancos Performance Center again got its money’s worth with entertaining basketball. The home fans again were celebrating.
“When it comes to this time of year, you just got to take it one game at a time,” Glover said. “You got to fight hard enough to be that team that wins it at the end. We just try to emphasize getting the ball inside, rebounding and working hard. I’m very proud of the boys tonight. They played really hard.”
The Bluejays (9-11, 6-7 2A San Juan Basin League) had a balanced scoring offense, and seemed to grab every loose ball and every offensive rebound that came their way.
“We had to play tough, good defense, rebound. All those little things we didn’t do in Dolores. We did tonight,” said an ill Branson Mitchell, a Mancos forward. “We came out and played as a team. We knew we were going to win. We had that fire inside us.”
Dolores (6-13, 4-8 2A SJBL) had late missed opportunities at the free-throw line and committed costly turnovers.
“The game could have gone either way, again,” Bears coach Larry Schwartz said. “Good job to Mancos. They made the plays down the stretch. They hit their free throws, Mitchell was tough tonight. He was tough to defend for us. Mitchell just did a great job.”
Mitchell physically set the tone early, scoring Mancos’ first four points in the lane, which gave the Bluejays its first lead of 4-3. Bears captain point guard Cody Carroll displayed his sharpshooting prowess with his first 3-pointer to lift Dolores back on top 6-4.
A long Kolton Miller 2 tied the game, then Jake Driver’s put back gave Mancos the lead back at 8-6. The Bluejays actually would never trail again, but they couldn’t break free from the pesky Bears.
There were six ties in the first half alone. The latest was 20-20 when Carroll sank a 3-pointer almost from Mesa Verde to knot the score. Mitchell hit three free throws down the stretch of the second quarter to make the score 23-20 at halftime.
Carroll had three 3s in the first half.
Kenny Philpot banked in a 5-footer to open the third and gave Mancos its biggest lead at 25-20. But Carroll quickly responded for the Bears with a baseline drive. Jackson Vermule’s foul shot made it just 25-23.
However, the Bluejays stole the momentum. Driver hit a baseline fade-away off a deflection from Mitchell. The next trip down, Nigel Henry knocked down his first triple to spark the loud home crowd. Mancos now led 30-23 and Schwartz called timeout. The Bears settled down and clawed back, ending the third on a 5-1 run. Alex Goodwin hit a 3 on the left wing to pull Dolores within three points at 31-28 going into the fourth quarter.
In the final stanza, the game belonged to Mancos and Wyatt Cox. The junior awakened from his offensive inexistence with eight straight points to recharge the Bluejays offense. Cox started with a high arching swish from downtown, off an assist from Miller, and Mancos led 34-28. After two Tyler Weir free throws for Dolores, Miller and Cox hooked up again. The result? Another rainbow 3-pointer by Cox to make it 37-30 Bluejays. Cox used his defense on the other end with a steal and took it coast-to-coast for the lay in. The blue and white faithful was in a frenzy with their team now up 39-30, the largest margin of the game.
“When Wyatt made those two big 3s, they were right when we needed them, too,” Glover said. “That’s one thing about Wyatt, he has made some of those big shots some of those times for us.”
The Bears weren’t about to go away quietly into the night.
Weir bullied his way down low with a put back layup and Carroll nailed his fourth from beyond the arc. All of a sudden, it was just 39-35 with three minutes remaining and the visiting sea of black was back, cheering in full force.
Glover, this time, needed a timeout at the 2:54 mark. The plan? Stall. Mancos started playing keep-away and the Bears fouled Miller.
The junior stepped to the line and missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Mitchell snagged the offensive board. Miller found the ball in his hands and once again, was fouled. Once again, he missed the 1-and-1. But Miller atoned with a steal on defense and passed the ball to Philpot where he was fouled. He missed the front end and the ball finally was back in Carroll’s hands. The junior lined up for 3 and had it blocked. The ball was loose and a scuffle ensued, as the ball went out of bounds off Dolores.
With under a minute to go, Henry hit 1 of 2 at the line, before Carroll drove in for two to make it 40-37. The Bears fouled Miller again with 29 seconds left. This time, the smallest player on the floor made a huge foul shot to make it a two possession game for Mancos at 41-37.
After a Dolores timeout, Goodwin found Austin Blackmer open for 3, but it missed. Goodwin got the offensive rebound and was fouled. Goodwin sank 1 of 2 to cut the Bluejays lead to 41-38. Dolores, though, would get no closer. Mancos made 3 of 4 at the charity stripe in the last 17 seconds to seal the win. Miller went 2 for 2 with three seconds to go for the game’s final points.
“They killed us on the offensive boards,” Schwartz said. “I though both teams battled it out defensively. They just made more clutch plays than we did. We’ll jack up some crazy shots sometimes.”
Mitchell led the efficient Bluejays with 10 points. Cox and Driver scored nine and eight points, respectively.
“We knew we had to win this game to keep going. We didn’t want our season to end, yet. We definitely didn’t want to lose at home against Dolores. Especially, for our seniors,” Mitchell, a junior, said.
Carroll netted a game high 17 points for the Bears and Weir chipped in nine.
“They’re really physical down low. That’s what that team is about. Just getting the boards and going back up with it,” Carroll said about Mancos. “I give it up to Branson, he had a lot of points today. They boxed out and we didn’t. If we’re going to get the calls, we’re going to get the calls. They were being a lot more physical today.”
For Dolores, it’s another season in the books. The future appears promising with four of five starters returning next year.
“We got a young team coming back. We’re excited for next season,” Schwartz said. “We talked about traveling next summer and keeping this group together. Making a commitment to basketball and play as much as we can.”
Carroll is committed to carrying the torch into next season.
“There’s going to be a lot of summer ball this year,” he said. “All I know is everyday during the summer, I’m going to go out and four of our other guys are going to go out and shoot 500 shots. It doesn’t matter, just shoot. That’s what we need. We’re physical, we play hard defense, but we need to know where everyone’s at, be familiar. We’re really young. It’s going to be really exciting next year. As a senior, it’s my role to lift the team and make sure we play as a family, instead of just a basketball team.”
Mancos took two out of three meetings this season over its rival and has won five of the last six overall. Now, the Bluejays have the tough task of playing No. 1-seed Ignacio (No. 4 Coloradopreps.com, No. 5 Denver Post) on Friday at 8:30 p.m., in Montezuma-Cortez High School. The Bobcats (15-4, 11-0 2A SJBL) swept the Bluejays in the regular season by an average margin of 19 points.
“Last time we played Ignacio, we played a great first half,” said Glover about the 64-46 home loss Feb. 10. “We had opportunities in that game to still come back and win. Our boys will hopefully take that confidence in to Friday night’s game. We got to just come out and fight, and give ourselves a chance to win and be competitive.”
Mitchell echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“We really want to beat them,” he said. “They’re a good team and that coach (Chris Valdez) is really good. We’d love nothing more than to be the underdog, and go in there and win that game. I really hope we win districts. It would be an amazing feeling.”
If Mancos wins Friday, it will play Saturday at 2:30 p.m., in the district championship against the winner of Ridgway (No. 2) and Telluride. If the Bluejays lose, they’ll play Saturday at 11:30 a.m., for third-place. If Mancos wins, it will advance to regionals.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.