The Durango High School boys team had another game that wasn’t decided until the very end on Saturday against Grand Junction.
Walter Stauffer came up big for the Demons and made a pair of baskets late in the paint to tie the game, 45-45. Grand Junction scored next, but it remained a one-basket game with 1:06 left in the game, 47-45.
Grand Junction’s Dillon Chapman appeared to put the game on ice. Chapman stole a pass and turned it into a fast-break bucket to extend the Tigers’ lead to 49-45, forcing DHS to foul.
After Grand Junction hit two free throws, Anthony Flint nailed a long 3-pointer to make it a one-basket game again with about 10 seconds left, 51-48.
The Tigers, however, sank the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw, stole another pass and made one more from the charity stripe to win the contest, 53-48.
The loss was the Durango’s sixth consecutive, dropping the team’s record to 5-8 overall and 0-1 in the SWL. Grand Junction improved to 10-5, 1-0.
“We’re at that part of the season where we need to see a win, no matter how it looks,” said DHS head coach Alan Batiste. “That will solve a lot of our problems.”
The coach said the team’s “effort was there” and that its “energy was better.”
Finishing on top, however, has eluded the team lately.
“Durango has to stop playing Durango at the end of the day,” Batiste said.
In the first quarter, Stauffer scored the team’s first five points. Flint then scored three the old-fashioned way and Luke Wesley hit a 3-pointer that gave DHS an 11-6 lead. The Tigers, however, scored the last 10 points of the quarter to lead 16-11 after one.
The Tigers maintained a five-point lead early in the second, 20-15, but Durango went on a 9-0 run with two Stauffer baskets, a 3-pointer from Dylan Bettin and a floater from Brady Leimbach.
The teams traded the lead a couple more times in the quarter, but Wesley assisted Zach Haber in the final five seconds to give DHS a 30-29 lead at the break.
Grand Junction came out strong in the third and built a 41-34 advantage, but Jacob Neubert and Harms each hit a field goal and Wesley added a free throw to cut the lead to 41-39 heading into the fourth.
Stauffer scored 15 to lead DHS. Flint added 10, Wesley scored 8, Bettin had five, Neubert and Zach Haber both scored four, and Leimbach chipped in two.
Chapman scored 14, and Reese Skinner added 13 to lead the Tigers.
Next, the Demons will play at Grand Junction Central (5-7) on Friday and at Fruita Monument (4-7) Saturday.
