The Mancos Blue Jays (5-9) went pound-for-pound with the Ignacio Bobcats (11-2) for the first half of their contest on Tuesday night.
But just the first half.
The opening frame was a defensive showcase, with both teams rebounding well and limiting second-chance opportunities for their opponent. And the score reflected it, as Ignacio entered the second with a slim, 14-10 lead.
Then, the two offenses started sparking.
Andrew Plunkett started the second-quarter scoring with a dream-shake-style turnaround, and Adrian Hernandez knocked down a 3-pointer to follow.
But for each Mancos basket, Ignacio would respond.
Caleb Yoder scored on a step-through move to give the Blue Jays a 17-16 lead with six minutes left in the half, but as the two teams traded baskets for the rest of the quarter, the Bobcats led by three to enter the half, 31-28.
“I thought we were patient, and I thought we executed our offense well,” Mancos head coach Rodney Cox said of the Blue Jays’ first half. “We wanted to run them off the 3-point-line and make them drive on us, as silly as that sounds.”
Cox said his defensive plan might have sounded silly, but it worked, as the sharp-shooting Bobcats connected on just five 3-pointers in the first half.
The second half was a different story.
“We changed nothing at half time, and you saw what we had in the second half,” Cox said chuckling. “Maybe I should have changed something.”
After a great first half, it made sense for the Blue Jays to stand pat. But in the second half they hit a drought, while the Bobcats – the No. 5 team in Class 2A in CHSAANow’s latest rankings – caught fire.
Ro Paschal opened the third quarter with a hook shot to pull the Blue Jays within one, but they failed to score for the remainder of the quarter and the Bobcats closed on a 15-0 run – that included three 3-pointers – to take a 46-30 lead into the fourth.
“Turnovers,” Cox said explaining the Blue Jays’ dry spell. “And we didn’t execute, we didn’t run our plays and we turned the ball over. We had 14 turnovers in the second half.”
Then, in the final frame, the Bobcats kept cooking from deep and knocked down six triples to run away with a 70-44 win.
“They shot 56-percent from the 3-point-line,” Cox said after the game. “They just shot the ball well, and we didn’t run them off the 3-point-line. They’re fun to watch, but they’re horrible to play against. I really respect what they’ve got going on over here.”
The Blue Jays got scoring contributions from six different players, but they could muster only 16 second-half points in the loss.
Paschal led Mancos with 17 points, Hernandez finished with nine and Plunkett added eight.
Andrew Christensen hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter and finished with five, Yoder scored three and Griff Huver chipped in two.
