Wolverines score first 14 points, win 62-41

BAYFIELD — Senior center Ryan Phelps’ thunderous alley-oop slam beginning the third quarter Saturday evening was a potential signal that the home team felt it had done enough to secure victory.

Centauri’s Noah Sowards more or less proved they hadn’t.Coming off head coach Jeff Brown’s bench in support of classmate Cody Bagwell, Phelps’ initial counterpart, the sophomore immediately elevated at the other end for a lightning-quick, but ultimately unluckily miss at an unexpected two-handed flush.

Still, the energized Falcons then forced the Wolverines to play fully until the quarter expired.  Unfortunately for CHS, they did; aggressively outscoring the guests 28-9, Bayfield rebuilt their 32-14 halftime lead to 60-23 with just eight regulation minutes remaining.

And that was just too great a margin for Centauri to overcome, despite causing unrest on BHS’ bench by ignoring the mercy-rule running clock and outscoring the locals’ second unit 18-2 in the final frame—closing the gap to 62-41 when all was said and done.

Blanked during the 3A Intermountain League contest’s opening 6 minutes, 3 seconds—in which Bayfield raced out to a 14-0 lead while their foes’ best shots refused to fall—the Falcons got three three-pointers and a team-high 13 points from senior Nate Anderson, and five points each from reserves Josh Duran and Derek Van Berkum.

Sowards finished with four points, as did starters Martin Garcia and Sam Anderson, and Centauri (8-7, 1-5 IML) was a collective 9-of-17 from the charity stripe, compared to BHS’ 9-11 accuracy.

Fired up by 12 first-quarter points and 6-of-8 free-throw shooting, Phelps progressed to total a game-best 24.  Senior guard Dax Snooks (12) and junior forward Hayden Farmer (11) joined him in double figures, and junior guard Turner Kennedy was close with his seven.

Up next for CHS will be a trip to Montezuma-Cortez (8-7, 2-4) this Friday, Feb. 2, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.  The Wolverines (10-5, 5-1) will travel to Monte Vista (4-10, 0-6) with a similar start time.

CHS (5-9-9-18) 41: S.Anderson 2 0-0 4, C.Bagwell 0 0-0 0, A.Holman 0 2-2 2, M.Garcia 0 4-6 4, N.Anderson 4 2-4 13, T.Crowther 0 0-1 0, O.Richardson 1 0-0 2, J.Duran 2 0-0 5, N.Sowards 2 0-2 4, D.VanBerkum 2 1-2 5, D.Rodriguez 1 0-0 2, R.Gonzales 0 0-0 0, D.Martinez 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS: 14 9-17 41.  3-POINTERS: N.Anderson 3, Duran.  TOTAL FOULS: 9.  FOULED OUT: None.

BHS (20-12-28-2) 62: K.Prior 3 0-0 6, D.Snooks 5 0-0 12, H.Farmer 5 1-1 11, M.Wells 0 0-0 0, R.Phelps 9 6-8 24, T.Kennedy 3 0-0 7, C.Heide 0 2-2 2, D.Heide 0 0-0 0, W.Whitmer 0 0-0 0, J.Mottin 0 0-0 0, K.Owens 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS: 25 9-11 62.  3-POINTERS: Snooks 2, Kennedy.  TOTAL FOULS: 16.  FOULED OUT: None.