Mancos freshman guard Nigel Henry calmly stepped to free-throw line in the fourth quarter against rival Dolores Friday night.
With the Bluejays leading 47-44 at home, Henry looked like a season veteran despite heavy crowd noise from the visiting fans.
First free throw? Good. Henry then gave a confident stare down to the Dolores fans and confidently made the second to give the Bluejays a 49-44 lead.
Henry made four more foul shots in the last five minutes to help preserve a Mancos win in this ever so heated rivalry, 55-49.
We came out and we were ready to work hard. We knew we wanted the game just as bad as they did, Mancos coach Mike Glover said. Thats the fun part about rivalry games. Both teams wanted to be better. It was fun going back-and-forth. Our kids grew up a lot tonight. They had to deal with some adversity.
Henry went 8-of-8 at the line and finished with 12 points overall in the back-and-forth game fueled by momentum and runs.
I just went to the line. I was practicing knocking down free throws, he said. All I had to do was boost my confidence. I went to the line and was like, I got this.
Mancos (4-5, 3-2 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) took a 27-21 lead at halftime after Henry made a steal, then came down and hit a 20-footer right before the buzzer.
The Bluejays pushed their lead to 10, their biggest of the game, at 31-21 to open the third quarter.
Dolores (4-7, 2-3 2A/1A SJBL) coach Larry Schwartz called timeout to settle his Bears down. Quickly out of the timeout, Dolores center Tyler Wier took the inbounds pass, hit a 12-footer and was fouled. Weir sank the free throw to make it 31-24, stopping a 7-0 Mancos run. The three-point play was the beginning of a 17-2 Dolores run that extended into the fourth quarter. The Bears took a 38-33 lead using a 1-3-1 zone defense that forced the Bluejays to shoot from the perimeter. Unfortunately for Mancos, the shots werent falling. For the Bears, Cody Carroll, Austin Blackmer and Weir wreaked havoc against the Mancos defense.
Now Glover was forced to call timeout on the Bluejays bench. Now it was time for a Mancos run.
He just told us to calm down and start playing defense, and think like we were in the game, said Henry regarding Glovers advice during the timeout. (We needed) to start playing our basketball instead of their basketball game. We needed to start slowing the ball down and finding the open person.
Kenny Philpot got low in the post for an easy layup. The next Mancos possession, Philpot put back a Henry miss and was fouled. He sank the free throw to tie the game at 38, and the Bluejays and their fans were back in the game.
The crowd was here, and they were into the game and they cheered, Glover said. Its a great time for the kids and thats what its all about. It was nice that the crowd was here tonight.
Branson Mitchell gave Mancos the lead at the 3:30 mark of the fourth after a foul shot. The Bluejays then forced a turnover, and Wyatt Cox nearly blew the roof off of the Mancos Performance Center with a huge shot from downtown. Mancos led 42-38, was on a 9-0 run and had the momentum, setting up an intense final three minutes.
Its a great rivalry, the fans were awesome. It really is great to be a part of that, Schwartz said. It was back-and-forth the whole night. Theyd get a lead, then wed fight back and get a lead.
After a bears timeout, Carroll found Weir under the basket for an easy layup. The Bluejays answered right back with Mitchell scoring off a Philpot assist.
Mancos clung to a 44-40 lead, until Carroll assisted Blackmer on a 20-footer and Jackson Vermule scored off a turnover. It was 44-all at the two minute mark.
The team that got to the free-throw line and made its free pitches would come out on top. Mitchell started it for Mancos making 1-of-2 for a 45-44 lead the Bluejays would not relinquish.
Vermule missed two for Dolores, then Mancos made the Bears pay. Mitchell found Trey Gordanier underneath for the deuce and a 47-44 Bluejays lead.
Mancos made 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to secure the 6-point win.
We had a chance to put the dagger in them and we didnt. We gave them the game, Schwartz said. We missed free throws down the end that could have kept us tied. I feel like the Bears beat the Bears.
The Bluejays have now beaten the Bears four consecutive times and the two foes will meet again in Dolores on Feb. 4.
Basketball is based off of runs and they just had more than we did, Weir said. We got in foul trouble a little bit more than we liked to. We missed a couple easy, point blank shots. Well get them next time. Were going to have a packed gym at our house and its going to be twice as loud as it was here for us.
Philpot led Mancos with 15 points. Cox had 12 points, while Gordanier and Mitchell each recorded 11 and 10, respectively.
They played well as a team, Glover said. All week long, we talked about playing good, team basketball. I felt like tonight we did. We had four really good practices this week. It was a good, fun game.
Weir, whos averaging 15 rebounds per game, scored a game high 16 points for Dolores. Blackmer and Carroll both tallied 13 and 11 points.
We came in at halftime and he (Schwartz) told us, We just got to block the crowd out of our heads and we got to play our game, Weir said. For that short period of time, we did play our game. We played the game we could have beat anybody with. But sadly, it didnt last that long.
The Bluejays hit the road today at Bayfield at 7 p.m.
For the Bears, they had to hurry and regroup. After such an emotional loss, Dolores played the Telluride Miners at home on Saturday.
In what was an evenly matched game for three quarters, the second stanza got away from the Bears for the difference in the league contest.
The second quarter, we went totally flat. That cost us the ballgame, Schwartz said. The rest of the way, we played them even.
Telluride out-scored Dolores 23-11 in the second quarter. The Bears couldnt catch up, losing 67-53.
We had jet lag from that Mancos game, Schwartz said. There was no emotion in the locker room. We felt like Mancos beat us twice. I thought we were a good matchup with Telluride. Just all the energy was drained. There just wasnt a whole lot of emotion in the building.
Carroll had a solid outing with 21 points, and Goodwin chipped in 10.
Dolores will be at Norwood on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.
