Timberwolves Grinding Out the Wins: Ortiz’s Hot Start Lifts East Mountain Over Cottonwood Classical

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It wasn’t always pretty, and it certainly wasn’t easy, but the East Mountain Timberwolves (19-1) proved once again that they can find a way to win even when they aren’t firing on all cylinders. In a back-and-forth battle against a familiar district foe, the Timberwolves weathered a third-quarter slump to pull away for a 55-47 victory over Cottonwood Classical (14-7).

The win keeps East Mountain firmly in the hunt for the District 5-3A title, moving them to 2-1 in league play.

The Ortiz Opening Act

The game began as a showcase for Vicente J. Ortiz. The junior guard came out of the gate on fire, scoring 13 of the Timberwolves’ 16 first-quarter points. Behind a barrage of three-pointers—three in the first frame alone—Ortiz single-handedly kept East Mountain ahead 16-12.

The Timberwolves extended that lead to 33-28 by halftime, but the “bully on the block” mentality of Cottonwood Classical began to take its toll in the second half.

A Third-Quarter Test

The Lady Coyotes roared back in the third quarter, stifling the East Mountain offense and taking a 39-38 lead into the final period. For a Timberwolves team that Coach Brad Hofmann admitted has been “out of sync” lately, the deficit was a gut check.

“District play is intense,” Coach Hofmann said following the win. “The teams know each other, the players know each other… there’s just familiarity there. I knew this was going to be a tougher game.”

East Mountain responded by returning to their fundamentals: defense and execution. They dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring Cottonwood 17-8 to secure the eight-point win.

Key Contributors

While Ortiz led all scorers with 21 points (including four triples), he had plenty of help down the stretch:

• Eric Hofmann provided a massive interior presence, finishing with 14 points.
• Liam Pierce chipped in 11 points, including three critical three-pointers that helped space the floor during the fourth-quarter rally.
• Quinlan Gwyther and Eli Conklin added 4 and 3 points respectively, contributing to a balanced effort that eventually wore down the Coyotes.

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Looking Ahead: The Road to Cuba

Despite the 19-1 record, Coach Hofmann is keeping his team focused on the work ahead rather than the standings.

“If you defend, you give yourself a chance,” Hofmann noted. “We haven’t played our greatest basketball, but we’re still finding ways to win. Now we’ve got to go back and work… and fix some of the things we’re not doing to really click on all cylinders.”

The Timberwolves will travel to Cuba on Tuesday to finish the first round of district play. A win there would set up a highly anticipated rematch with Bosque next Thursday as the second round of districts begins.