TELLURIDE – The Mancos Bluejays entered their district basketball tournaments with a clear ambition: win the title and earn more time on their home court.
For Dusty Veach’s boys team and Kerri Morgan’s girls squad, the results spoke for themselves.
The girls dominated both their semifinal victory over host Telluride (58-21) on Friday night, then cruised to a 52-28 victory over Ridgway the following afternoon to capture their second straight district title.
Although the boys found their journey a bit more difficult, they captured the rubber match against Telluride (54-51) in Saturday’s championship game, a day after outlasting Dolores 71-55.
For the Mancos girls, wins over the Miners and Demons completed three-game sweeps over their 2A/1A San Juan Basin League rivals, further cementing the Bluejays (16-5, 7-1) as a major force to be reckoned with in southwest Colorado.
In their semifinal victory, eight players scored – including 30 points by sophomore Claire Goodwin.
The Bluejays then faced off against Ridgway, which defeated Dolores 35-21 in the other semifinal matchup. Mancos took firm control early again, building a 28-13 halftime lead and never looking back.
In the boys tournament, senior Brian Veach and junior Kaiden Wyatt scored a combined 45 points against Dolores in the semifinals.
The following evening, the Bluejays (17-4, 8-1) dug deep to scrape out the three-point win against Telluride in a rematch of last year’s title matchup. Veach once again provided a big scoring boost with 20 points, while freshman Kaleb Schmitt and senior Chris Medina scored a combined 19 points.
The Mancos boys earned the coveted right to host a regional site courtesy of their win.
The Mancos girls earned the program’s highest win total in over two decades with their 16th victory of the season, and they look to keep adding even more victories as they begin the 2A regional round as a home team.
The Mancos girls are the No. 8 seed in 2A and will face off against No. 25 Del Norte in the opening round on March 1, starting at 2 p.m. The winner of that game will face the winner of the No. 9 Sedgwick County/No. 24 Center game in the regional finals on March 2, starting at 11 a.m.
The Manco boys are also an eighth seed in the 2A tournament and will face No. 25 Sedgwick County on March 1, starting at 4 p.m. The winner of that game will take on either ninth-seeded Limon or 24th-seeded Akron in the regional finals on March 2, starting at 1 p.m.
