Walking into the Mancos Performance Center, you could hear the thud of people's feet against the bleachers.
You could hear the swishing of the blue and white pompoms whipping through the air, and the squeaking of the girls' shoes against the floor as they started their warm-ups.
With barely an available seat anywhere, the crowd piled into the gym to see the hometown Lady Bluejays face the hated Dolores Lady Bears.
The Lady Bluejays started slow and tried to pick up the intensity to match the Lady Bears' pace all throughout the game.
Mancos quickly fell behind Dolores, as it made basket after basket, leaving the Lady Bluejays in the dust. However, the Mancos girls never gave up, as they fought back with everything they had. The crowd was into the game through all four quarters and tried to pep up the girls as much as they could. But with all the people there to support them, the Lady Bluejays couldn't pull through in the end and lost big last Saturday, 64-39.
Varsity boys
The Mancos boys rushed to a 5-point lead in the first minutes of the rivalry game.
As the minutes of each quarter ticked down, second by second, the points racked up for both teams.
Especially, for Dolores' Cody Carroll.
The senior sharpshooter hit 7-of-10 3-pointers on the way to a game high 31 points and Dolores held off Mancos, 79-73.
It's the Bears' first season sweep of Mancos since the 2009-10 campaign.
The home crowd kept up the boys' intensity, as they cheered for each point that was made and booed when the referees made calls for Dolores.
At halftime, the Bluejays were down by four points and went into the locker room knowing the second half would be intense.
It was.
Coming back out on to the court, the Mancos boys had the desire to win and tied the score early the third quarter.
Wyatt Cox, Brandon Hood-Farley and Ro Paschal each made at least two 3s to keep it close. Branson Mitchell even made his first 3-pointer of the season.
But in the end, Dolores made its free throws to salt the game away.
Dolores' girls and boys play Thursday night at Dove Creek at 5:30 and 7.
The Mancos girls and boys will travel to Nucla to play their last regular season game Saturday at 5 and 6:30 p.m.
