After a closely contested loss to the Delta Panthers Thursday night, the Pagosa Springs High School Pirate basketball team rallied Saturday to defeat the Gunnison Cowboys 73-22 at the annual Wolf Creek Classic in Pagosa Springs, finishing the weekend with a 1-1 record and — according to coach Wes Lewis — a lot to be proud of.
“Yeah, we hate to lose,” Lewis said, reflecting on the Pirate’s 59-68 loss to the 4A Panthers, “but there’s a lot of things to be positive about and build on. We’re gonna keep getting better as the year goes along.”
On Thursday, an edgy start from the Pirates quickly led to a 13-point deficit in the first quarter, prompting Lewis to call a timeout that helped settle the squad.
“We kind of got settled down and we started doing a lot better job of taking care of the basketball and beating the press,” Lewis said. “We played pretty well for about the second half of the first quarter, all the way through the second and the third.”
With minutes remaining in the first half, the Pirates fought back to gain a one-point lead, briefly lost it, but headed to the locker room leading 35-33 thanks to a steal by Colt Lewis, who led the team in scoring for the night with 30 points — 18 of which came from three-pointers.
The Pirates clung to a slim lead throughout the third quarter, at one point leading by six, but as the game approached its final eight minutes, the Panthers had drawn within one.
“Beginning of the fourth we were still OK; we just kind of got a little careless with the basketball again … and again had a lot of turnovers late,” Wes Lewis said.
With Pagosa leading 52-49, those turnovers stalled the Pirates’ momentum throughout the fourth and granted the Panthers just enough opportunity to inch ahead in the final minutes — sealing the win in a game Wes Lewis called closer than the 59-68 final score would suggest.
“I feel like that game could have gone one of two ways,” he recalled. “It could have just continued to balloon and get out of control and get away from us. Or, kind of what happened: You fight your way back into it. And there’s a lot of things to take away from the game to be proud of, as far as the never-say-die attitude, having the fortitude to fight back.”
Following Colt Lewis’ 30 points, Seth Zeigler scored 11 points, followed by Ty Richey and Jaxten Schiel, who each scored seven.
The Pirates sunk 72 percent of shots from the free-throw line, converting 18 out of 25 attempts.
Schiel led the team in rebounds with seven — three defensive and four offensive — followed by Zeigler, Richey and Creede Dozier, who each brought down five.
Dozier led the team in steals with five.
Richey led the team in assists, with four, followed by Dozier and Schiel, who each finished with three.
Dozier finished with one block, as did Schiel.
The team finished with 15 total turnovers for the night.
Back on court Saturday versus Gunnison, a more relaxed Pirate squad excelled in transition and avoided the foul trouble that plagued the team two nights earlier.
“The kids ran the floor well,” coach Lewis said. “We shared the basketball, throwing the ball ahead, so that led to a lot of easy points in transition. We shot the ball pretty well from the field.”
He added, “We were a little calmer, a little more relaxed. We just settled in and played a nice game.”
Against the Cowboys, Dozier led the team in scoring with 22 points, followed by Colt Lewis with 20 and Zeigler with 11.
Zeigler led the team in rebounds, bringing down five offensive and five defensive, while Colt Lewis led in assists, totaling 10 for the night.
Dozier finished with four assists, followed by sophomore Jayton Ross with three.
The Pirates didn’t record any blocks against Gunnison.
The team converted 66 percent of shots from the free-throw line, landing eight out of 12 attempts for the night, and limited turnovers to six.
According to Wes Lewis, the leadership of his more experienced players will be instrumental as the team continues to build skills in the weeks ahead.
“Some of the older kids, rightfully so, are a little ahead of some of the younger kids, and we just got to try to bring the younger kids along defensively and get all five kids on the same page,” he said.
“We’re playing mostly seniors and juniors, but the juniors don’t have a lot of varsity experience with the exception of [Dozier],” he continued. “So, we’ve just got to fine-tune some of the offenses and the defenses … knowing where to be and what to do, and that just comes with more time, more reps.”
The Pirates will have a little more than one week to do just that before heading to Montrose for the Black Canyon Classic Dec. 19-21.
There, they are scheduled to face a trio of 5A squads — Montrose at 7 p.m. on Dec. 19, Glenwood Springs at 4 p.m. on Dec. 20 and Pueblo Central at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 21 — in what will be the Pirates’ final games of 2024.
Montrose is 3-0 on the season, Glenwood Springs is 1-2 and Pueblo Central holds a 2-1 record.
garrett@pagosasun.com
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