The Durango High School boys basketball team didn’t pass up an opportunity Saturday to kick the Grand Junction Central Warriors while they were down.
The Demons handed the Warriors a 55-42 loss in Grand Junction, extending Central’s winless streak to 14 games.
Durango struggled to break away from Central in the first quarter, as the Warriors slow, deliberate attack controlled the pace of the game and prevented the Demons from getting into a rhythm. The teams traded scores until early in the second quarter when Durango went on a short run to open up a six-point lead.
The Demons didn’t look back.
On Ty Elliott’s three first-half 3-pointers, the Demons pushed that lead to 11 at the half.
Elliott led DHS with 17 points on the game, while Morgan Miller added 11, and Friday night’s point leader Joe Keresey scored 8.
The Demons didn’t lack easy chances to pad their lead in either half as they ended up at the free-throw line 29 times throughout the afternoon. But their struggles making those shots continued, and Durango hit less than half of their foul shots, going just 14 of 29.
Unlike Friday night where missed free throws contributed to Durango’s overtime loss to Montrose, though, the Demons foul-line inaccuracy did not have a major impact on the score. Throughout the second half, the Demons maintained their double-digit lead, neither ceding nor gaining much ground and outscoring the Warriors by just two points to secure the win.
