Four-for-Four will be the goal of the Yuma High School boys basketball team when the Outlaws host a four-team regional this weekend.
This is the fourth and final season for Yuma basketball in 3A as it will go back to 2A next season. The boys have advanced to the 3A Great 8 each of the last three seasons, including the incredible “one-point” state title in 2024.
The Outlaws are two wins away from advancing again to Hamilton Gymnasium on the University of Denver campus. They are the fourth seed in the 32-team field with an 18-5 record. They will play 29th-seed Lyons at 6 p.m. Friday. Colorado Springs Christian, the 13th seed, will play No. 20 North Fork at 3 p.m. in The Pit.
Lyons comes to town with a 12-10 record, while Colorado Springs Christian is 16-7, and North Fork 15-8.
“Now it’s win or go home,” coach Dave Sheffield said. “That’s the deal, getting through this weekend.”
Senior Brody Sheffield, among 3A’s top scorers at 25.6 points per game, is expected to be back in action after missing the past six quarters with an ankle injury.
Yuma enters the postseason on a three-game losing streak. However, it had minimal impact the Outlaws’ postseason seeding. As the fourth seed, they are now on the same side of the bracket as top-seed Strasburg, but Sheffield noted the second seed is Forge Christian, which beat Strasburg in the regular season.
All that matters now, though, is getting past the Lions from Lyons on Friday.
“It’s a game we need and we have to be up for it,” Sheffield said.
He said the other regional semifinal could be track meet as Colorado Springs Christian and North Fork both like to play at a fast pace.
“That could be a very tightly-contested game,” Sheffield said.
The Outlaws wrapped up the regular season last week in the Patriot League Tournament. They hosted Resurrection Christian on Wednesday in a consolation semifinal after a last-second loss to Wiggins the previous Friday.
Yuma was leading 17-11 in the second quarter when Sheffield went down with the ankle injury while driving to the basket.
Resurrection Christian made a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to tie the score at 20. The Cougars opened the third on a 9-0 run. Consecutive 3-pointers by Jalen Rose and Reyli Trejo pulled the Outlaws to within one, 29-28, but Rez pulled away after that, handing the Outlaws a 54-41 loss.
Rose had 12 points and six rebounds, Sheffield 11 points, Trejo six points and three steals, Jose Mario Ross six points, Alex Pensado four points, five rebounds and four assists, and David Covarrubias two points and four rebounds.
The loss dropped the Outlaws into the seventh-place game against Liberty Common on Saturday morning on the University of Northern Colorado campus.
They raced out to a 17-4 lead in the first quarter. However, they scored only 17 points over the final three quarters, including three in the fourth, as Liberty Common pulled away to a 49-34 win.
“They put on a different defense that stifled us,” Sheffield said. “It’s a situation we need to grow from. Some good things came from that game, and some things that we need to learn from.”
Yuma shot 25 percent, including making three of 17 3-pointers, and committed an uncharacteristically-high 21 turnovers.
Pensado had 12 points and six rebounds, Ross seven points and three rebounds, Rose six points, Covarrubias four points and 10 rebounds, Noe Quezada two points and four rebounds, Stevie Seward two points, Trejo one point, and Osvaldo Pensado two rebounds.