Though certainly not facing an Ignacio basketball team as high profile as in seasons past, Bayfield showed to all inside Durango's DemonDome last Friday evening that they weren't even the Wolverines from three nights before.

Particularly from the charity stripe.

"That's a very big part of the game," sophomore guard Keyon Prior said, reflecting on the Wolverines' 9-of-19 work in a four-point overtime loss at home to 5A Kirtland Central on Jan. 3. "We need to get to the line more."

Bayfield did indeed "get to the line more." A lot more, in fact. The Wolverines took near-complete control of the Day 1 contest against Igncio at DHS' Four Corners Tournament, with seven Prior points keying a 9-0 opening run. BHS led 19-4 after the first quarter. Four-for-four during the first eight minutes against Ignacio, the 3A Wolverines went 12-for-15 during the second quarter alone in building up their advantage to 43-16 at halftime, then sank 10 more in 12 second-half tries to finish 26-of-31 at the line while racing away to a 77-41 victory. The Wolverines shot nearly 84 percent against the Bobcats, easily bettering the 47 percent against KCHS last week.

"That's huge," said senior guard Brian Mashak. "We've been practicing free throws all week. Coach Lehnus told us we had to make some - we set a team goal to make 70 percent or higher, and we shot it tonight."

"Between drills, after you get back from water, you shoot five free throws and rotate with a teammate, and we just did that constantly," recalled Prior about the squad's practice emphasis. "As a team, if you don't hit your free throws, you run sprints! Twenty-six-for-thirty-one? That's amazing. Coach has been preaching that to us and we've just been working in practice to get better."

Junior center/forward Ryan Phelps, so hyped up to battle the Bobcats that he instantly developed a blood blister on his right index finger slamming home a one-handed, highlight-quality dunk during the pregame shoot-around, led the Wolverines with 17 points. That tied him for the game-high with IHS junior guard Johnny Valdez, who caught fire late and netted 11 of his in the fourth quarter.

"We don't necessarily expect to come out like that," said Phelps. "We knew we were coming out fired up against a rival, and we were just ready to play."

"We were super excited," said Mashak, who scored nine points while primarily limiting Bobcat junior Kruz Pardo to just five. "It was a rivalry game - it's pretty much 'Rivalry Week' - and we just wanted to show them that we could play."

Added Prior: "This Ignacio-Bayfield rivalry's always been big, and last year we got a big win when they were favored. "And they're a great team; I give them a lot of credit, but I feel like this is Bayfield's time now." Prior made 13 points in the game, all in the first 16 minutes.

"All of our team scored, had assists, steals, and we shot well from the free-throw line," Prior added. "It was awesome."

Sophomore Hayden Farmer booked seven and classmate Turner Kennedy two to round out the regulars' contributions, but just as impressive was that of the reserves. Junior McKay Wells came off the bench to log nine points, classmate Dax Snooks had eight, and juniors Carl and Dawson Heide each had four (as did classmate Cade Killough) to give BHS a 29-9 edge in bench production.

"We accomplished a lot of things, achieved some new goals," Phelps said. "Got better free throws, we got less turnovers than we usually have, it was just an all-around great win."

Junior guard Cole McCaw, sometimes assigned to slow his cousin Prior, finished with six points for 2A Ignacio (4-9 FT as a whole) and also energized the Bobcat backers with a pair of breakaway layup-denying blocks.

"It was pretty fun," McCaw said of going against his relative. "(We) play together a lot, and it's just fun to play him in a real game."

"We've been great buddies growing up, hung out a lot when we were younger," Prior added. "Not as much lately, but we're still very close and I enjoyed being able to play against my cousin."

Sophomore guard Lawrence Duffin-Valdez came off IHS' bench to score his first five points of the season, while freshman forward Ocean Hunter did likewise to match starting center Kai Roubideaux's four points in defeat.