SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – With 6:28 remaining in the second quarter Saturday afternoon, Bayfield girls basketball head coach Ben Martinez faced a predicament in which no head coach enjoys being pickled.
With next to no reserves available and the Wolverines basketball experiencing firsthand Telluride’s improvement – leaving the teams separated by just a point, 11-10, 1:32 into the second quarter – over last season, Martinez had to trust his gut on just how long he could keep senior rock Renae Foutz, given her fourth personal foul, benched.
His players, however, weren’t as shaken as any observer inside THS’ MinerDome may have expected. Bayfield pulled away for a 38-20 win.
Sparked by a 3-pointer by freshman guard Kieley White Thunder, Bayfield went on a 10-0 run – gaining a 20-11 lead – before THS senior Emma Reggiannini hit one of two free throws with 29.1 ticks left until halftime. With the Wolverines suddenly up eight at intermission, Martinez decided to reinsert Foutz early in the third quarter in the hope her return could help increase that advantage enough to where it wouldn’t matter much if she was to foul out.
His gamble paid off.
Getting one 2-point bucket from Foutz, plus two apiece from White Thunder and junior center/forward Sylvia Hesford, BHS’ lead grew to 32-18 by the end of the third quarter and stood a secure 36-20 when Foutz was called for her disqualifying fifth with 6:06 remaining in regulation.
Neither side would score again until BHS sophomore guard Vivien Clance netted a late 2-pointer, by that time Telluride had lost (with 2:55 left) senior guard Pella Ward to her fifth personal – leaving Chris Murray’s crew with only guard/forward Reggiannini and senior forward/center Fianna Ahern as established offensive threats.
But with White Thunder nabbing three steals during the fourth quarter and Clance snaring five vital rebounds, THS failed to so much as even chip away at Bayfield’s double-digit lead, and time would expire with BHS coming out on top 38-20.
“I think a lot of it was our mindset,” said Hesford, who finished with six points and four fouls. “We’ve been facing foul trouble all season, me and Renae …. But with our bench getting shorter recently, tonight … if anyone else fouled out we were done.”
“Natalie (Orendorff) was hurt,” she continued, “so when me and Kimball (Anderson) both got our fourth, we were like ‘We’ve got to lock in a little bit.’ And we persevered through it; it’s just something we’ve been working through all season, and it finally, like, showed tonight that we can fight, use our fouls without fouling out.”
White Thunder and Clance each finished with a team-best 11 points while Foutz, hit with three fouls during the first quarter, still managed to match Hesford’s half-dozen.
Coming off a career-high 26 points in the Lady Miners’ 42-11 win at Ouray the previous evening, Reggiannini finished with seven points against Bayfield, while Ahern (six versus OHS) registered a game-high 13.
Telluride slipped to 3-5 overall (1-0 3A/2A/1A San Juan Basin) with the loss, while Bayfield improved to 4-4 before commencing 3A/4A Intermountain work on the 17th versus Alamosa and the next afternoon out in La Jara at Centauri.
“We play in a really, really hard league and I think we’ve started out really strong, have some good momentum going,” said Hesford “We’re all just hoping that carries through into league. We’re not expecting to ‘win’ against Alamosa, Centauri, Pagosa (Springs) … but I think we’re going to compete harder this year than we ever have – and that’s really exciting.”