The Durango High School girls and boys basketball teams have been road warriors this season, but both will be at home Friday and Saturday to tip off their 6A/5A Southwestern League schedules.
Durango will welcome Grand Junction Central to DHS on Friday and Grand Junction on Saturday, beginning with the girls at 6 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday.
The Durango girls climbed two spots to No. 3 in this week’s CHSAANow.com’s Class 5A rankings after winning their 11th consecutive game, all on the road.
Last weekend, the Durango girls dominated a pair of fellow 5A squads to keep their momentum rolling. The Demons beat Eagle Valley 56-22 on Friday, with Mason Rowland scoring 29 points in just three quarters on the court. Reese Glover also played well and scored seven, and Carter Neiman added another seven.
The next day at Battle Mountain, DHS won by an even more lopsided margin, 55-15.
Rowland led all scorers again with 19 points while Halle Peterson scored 12, Katelynn Sheppard added eight, and Mariah Maestas scored six.
This season, Rowland is averaging 15.7 points per game, and Peterson is averaging 10.6. Other scorers include Sheppard (5.9 ppg), Neiman (3.5) and Riley Campbell (3.5). Peterson is also averaging 4.3 rebounds per game and Rowland 4.2.
The Central girls (7-5, 1-0) won the only conference game to be played so far, 47-38, against Montrose (9-3, 0-1). Grand Junction (0-12, 0-0) was winless entering a contest Thursday night against Basalt. Fruita Monument (10-3, 0-0), however, has been playing strong and is receiving votes in the Class 6A poll.
The Demon boys (4-9, 0-0) scored a season-high 65 points in their loss to Eagle Valley on Friday, 84-65.
The Durango boys came back the next night and took down Battle Mountain, 54-46.
Central is 8-4 overall, but 0-1 in the league after falling 51-40 to Montrose (9-3, 1-0).
Grand Junction was 6-6 heading into a contest against Eagle Valley before visiting Durango while the Fruita boys (12-1, 0-0) have the best overall record out of the league.
In the 4A/3A Intermountain League, Bayfield and Ignacio are scheduled to continue league play against each other on Thursday at BHS, with the varsity girls game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and the boys following at 7 p.m.
The Wolverine girls (2-6, 0-2) will also play at Pagosa Springs (1-10, 1-1) at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The Bayfield boys (5-5, 0-2) will next play the league-leading Centauri (10-1, 2-0) on Jan. 27.
The Ignacio girls (5-5, 0-1), meanwhile, will visit first-place Centauri (9-2, 2-0) on Friday.
The Bobcat boys (3-7, 0-2) will take the court against the league-leading Falcons following the girls game.
Alamosa’s girls (9-3, 1-0) are also undefeated in league play and will play Pagosa Springs (9-2, 1-1) Friday while Montezuma Cortez (3-5, 1-1) will host Centauri Friday.
Alamosa’s boys (10-1, 2-0) are also off to a strong start and will take on Pagosa Springs 9-2, 1-1) in a tough game Friday. The Montezuma Cortez boys (5-4, 1-1) will have also have a tough game Friday against Centauri.
