Basketball Game Preview: Montezuma-Cortez Panthers vs. Montrose Red Hawks

The Montezuma-Cortez Panthers will head out on the road to square off against the Montrose Red Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Montezuma-Cortez will bounce into Tuesday's contest after beating Alamosa, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. Montezuma-Cortez blew past Alamosa 65-45 on Saturday. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 89th, while the Mean Moose are ranked 262nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Montrose earned a 52-44 victory over Grand Junction Central on Thursday. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Red Hawks.

Montezuma-Cortez better keep an eye on Kaleb Ferguson. He was instrumental in Montrose's win, dropping a double-double on 21 points and 13 boards. That makes it four consecutive games in which Ferguson has scored at least a third of Montrose's points. Another player making a difference was Brody Cooling, who posted five points in addition to six rebounds and five assists.

Montrose is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.2 points per game. As for Montezuma-Cortez, their win bumped their record up to 9-3.

Montezuma-Cortez might still be hurting after the 64-43 loss they got from Montrose when the teams last played back in January of 2021. Thankfully for Montezuma-Cortez, Luke Hutto (who went 9 for 15 on his way to 21 points and three steals) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.