Milah Begay’s first 3-pointer – a first-quarter bank shot – Thursday evening simply made Montezuma-Cortez’s good start even greater, helping spark a 13-4 start.
Ignacio junior Marissa Olguin had closed out the opening eight minutes with a 3-pointer, making it a 13-9 game, and both sides went back and forth well into the third quarter.
The Lady Panthers then pulled ahead en route to a 58-44 victory Thursday night at IHS Gymnasium.
Ignacio entered intermission down just 29-24, but after M-CHS junior Taylor Whited began the third quarter with a steal, the margin grew to 31-24 after zipping the ball ahead to Begay for a layup.
“Huge – and she’s just a freshman,” Montezuma-Cortez coach Brad Wright said when asked if Begay was M-CHS’ X-factor. “But those threes in the first half were monstrous; that’s what really kept the momentum going for us.”
Montezuma-Cortez improved to 10-9 overall and in 6-4 3A/4A Intermountain League play. Ignacio fell to 7-12 overall and 3-7 in league play.
Ignacio senior Solymar Cosio converted a Mendoza-Lechuga feed into two points to stay within two possessions at 37-30 with 1:11 left, but Montezuma-Cortez soon seized control for good.
Just 20 seconds into the final frame, the writing was on the wall for Ignacio. Montezuma-Cortez’s Sariah Jackson grabbed back-to-back offensive rebounds, netted a basket off the second one and drew a foul, resulting in a free throw to widen the gap. The Lady Panthers led 42-33 and started pulling ahead.
Olguin cashed her game-high fourth trey with 2:39 remaining for Ignacio to make it a 49-38 contest, but it was too little, too late for the Lady Bobcats.
Whited finished with 15 points for Montezuma-Cortez, while Olguin scored 15 points for Ignacio.
“One of the things we’d worked on the past couple days is execution,” Wright said. “We’ve been without (injured senior) Savannah Haselroth – she leads us in so many things on our team, as well as composure – so for the girls to pull together and actually execute, play the game … I’m really proud of them.”
