Archive for Sunday, February 20, 2005
Bulldogs get surprise playoff berth
EAGLE -- You can be sure that the Battle Mountain and Moffat County boys basketball teams were surfing the net Sunday. Their site of choice was www.chsaa.org.
It was Selection Sunday for the 4A state tournament. Only conference champions were assured of berths in the 48-team field. The scuttlebutt around the 4A Slope was that CHSAA was only taking four from the league.
But to the surprise of the staff and players, CHSAA didn't just let four WSL teams into the tournament. There were six, and Moffat County was the sixth.
The Bulldogs were one of the last four teams to make it into the field. They drew defending 4A champion Broomfield in the first round, which will be hosted by Steamboat Springs. Times were yet to be determined but the game is set for Friday night.
"To be honest I thought we were done," LeWarne said. "Saturday night I was disappointed because I didn't feel like this team had played as well as it can and I wasn't going to have a chance again this year to get them to do it. Now we have a second chance and I know I'm excited about that."
The Huskies clinched the fourth spot in the Slope with a 66-50 win over the Bulldogs Saturday night. It is the first time the Huskies have made the state playoffs in school history.
"Battle Mountain is a playoff team," Huskies coach Philip Tronsrue said. "They are not going to take that away from us. We are 15-7. We are 8-6 in the conference. We are going to the playoffs."
One year ago, Battle Mountain basketball and state playoffs would have been an inconceivable notion. The team was 0-12 in league and 3-18 overall. It has been a tremendous turnaround in Eagle-Vail this season.
The Bulldogs missed the playoffs last year after losing in the first round two years ago.
Battle Mountain's Connor Drumm was battling the flu and had a season-low two points -- though that bucket was a dunk in the fourth. Clint Wilson's back was hurting and he only accounted for seven. This win showed Battle Mountain's depth.
In an extremely physical third period, in which Moffat's Hugo Quezada got tossed, it was The Victor Cisneros and Rogelio Loya Show. Cisneros had bookend treys. In between, Loya had seven points as Battle Mountain outscored Moffat, 17-4, to break the game open.
Cisneros led the Huskies with 16, while Loya finished with 14. Junior Derek Duran led the Bulldogs with 15 points.
The Moffat bench was visibly upset at the officiating.
"I don't want to get negative," Moffat coach Mike LeWarne said. "Hugo should not have gotten kicked out of the game. That's the only comment I'll make about the officiating because the rest was non-biased."
Moffat finished the season with a 9-12 record overall and a 5-9 mark in the Slope. "I just told them I wasn't ready for the season to be over. I like this team," LeWarne said. "I like coaching them. I thought that we were really coming along. We had won our last three games before tonight. I told the boys how proud I am of how hard they work and to remember the feeling because we don't want it to happen again."



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