The whos, whats and wheres have been decided, but it's the whens that remain in question.
One day after the Durango High School girls basketball team was eliminated from the Class 5A tournament with a
hard-fought 57-44 defeat at
No. 1 seed Chaparral in Parker, the Bayfield High School boys and the Ignacio High School boys and girls basketball
programs learned their Regional assignments.
Bayfield drew a No. 26 seed in the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 3A Boys Basketball State
Championships on Sunday.
BHS, 7-14 overall, will play at No. 7 seed Hotchkiss (18-4) on Friday in a first-round game of the Steve Hill Region.
The winner will play 10-seed Manitou Springs (17-5) or 23-seed Grand Valley (12-10) on Saturday.
Faith Christian is the No. 1 seed in the 32-team tournament at 21-1 overall and will headline the Ray Lutz Region.
Aspen (23-0) is the No. 2 seed in the tournament and the top seed in Bayfield's region.
Jefferson Academy (22-0) is the No. 3 seed and host school of the Robert Chavez Region, and Pagosa Springs (18-3) is
the No. 4 seed and top seed in the Dick Katte Region.
Pagosa Springs will open against No. 29 Coal Ridge (7-16) on Friday.
“I think it's a winnable game for us," Wolverines coach Bill Hesford said Sunday. “They come from a tough (Western
Slope) league, but I think we match up with them pretty well size-wise. They have nobody over 6-4, so that's good."
Hesford said the Wolverines will lean on 6-7 sophomore Derek Hillyer.
“They have to plan for him, just because of how big he is," Hesford said of the Hotchkiss Bulldogs. “(Hillyer) is
young, but he's come a long way this season. We'll look for him to help us."
Bayfield finished second in the Intermountain League District Tournament after a championship loss to Pagosa Springs on
Saturday night.
Hesford said his smaller, quick guards will match up better with Hotchkiss than Pagosa Springs.
“We have fast, strong guards, so that'll help us," he said. “And they get after it defensively. They distribute it
well, too, and hopefully they can find Derek underneath."
Hesford expects a late game time, but no time was released Sunday night.
Same goes for the Ignacio boys games Friday night in the Class 2A state tournament.
The IHS boys, the San Juan League District Tournament champions, will host Antonito on Friday at Durango High School.
The winner will play either Meeker or Alexander Dawson on Saturday in the regional championship at DHS. Game times have
yet to be released.
The IHS girls, the San Juan League District Tournament runners-up, will play Burlington at
3 p.m. Friday at Adams State College in Alamosa. The winner will play either Sangre de Cristo or South Park on Saturday
in the regional championship at ASC.
“From everything I've heard, they're almost like us," Bobcats coach Brice Searles said Sunday night. “They've got good
guards, a pretty good defense, and no one is tall. It sounds like a pretty equal matchup; it's all about
execution."
For the IHS girls program, Friday's appearance will be its first at Regionals since 2003.
“I was really not too sure of what we were capable of," said Searles, a former Fort Lewis College men's basketball
star.
“I think it's all paid off - the hard work, the repetition … it's amazing that it's happened so fast … we could be
peaking at the right time."
aaron@durangoherald.com
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