Boys basketball teams from New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah converged at Farmington High School’s Scorpion Arena for a multistate clash at the annual Marv Sanders Memorial Invitational on Thursday through Saturday.
“They got it back up,” said DHS head coach Alan Batiste. “I thought it was a great tournament. They’re great hosts and it’s a great facility.”
The Demons hurt themselves with turnovers in their first two games, however, and lost both. DHS lost its opening game, 77-32, to Boulder Creek (Arizona) on Thursday. DHS then came up short against Gallup (New Mexico) in its second game, 57-39, on Friday.
“Boulder Creek is a tough 6A team out of Phoenix, and they got us in transition,” Batiste said. “In both games we turned the ball over too much in the first half and got down big early.”
The Demons had another slow start on Saturday and trailed Shiprock by about 10 at halftime. Marcus Cullum, however, gave DHS a spark in the first half to keep the Demons in the game, Batiste said.
In the second half, Durango started using its full-court press to put pressure on Shiprock and the Demons were able to turn a lot of turnovers into easy buckets. Noah Miles also got hot in the second half and scored 20 points, helping DHS rally for the win, 59-53.
“It was a well-needed win; we were on a three-game losing streak,” Batiste said. “It was a team effort, all the way around.”
The host Scorpions, meanwhile, beat Window Rock (Arizona) 64-43 and then Chaparral (Colorado) 52-51 to reach the championship game Saturday night against Boulder Creek. After beating DHS, Boulder Creek downed Westlake (Utah) 67-54 in the semifinals.
Chaparral and Westlake were scheduled to play for third while Gallup advanced to the fifth-place game against Window Rock with the win.
Durango (3-6) will play once more before the holidays, on Wednesday at Pagosa Springs (6-1).
“I’m glad we ended the weekend with a win, and hopefully we go into the new year with another win,” Batiste said. “We’ve got to win together, and that was what today was all about.”
