At the moment the rest of the gym knew the upset was secured, Taylor Edwards still focused on the next moment.
The Durango High School sophomore guard dropped in a fast-break layup with 9 seconds left to clinch a 41-36 win over CHSAA Class 4A No. 5 Montrose on Saturday in Durango.
Edwards didn’t think about the celebration or the impending win. She was ready to defend the inbound pass.
“Right after that I thought we need to bring up our defensive intensity to pull through and win it,” said Edwards, daughter of Chantel and Shawn Edwards. “You’ve got to keep playing until the buzzer.”
When the buzzer finally did ring, the Demons filled the gym with a celebratory roar and mobbed each other at half court.
“We came together so well,” said DHS sophomore Katrina Chandler, daughter of Klint and Rebecca Chandler.
Chandler featured heavily in Durango’s second-half strategy that sealed the win.
Instead of the Demons’ typical fast-paced offense, DHS (14-6, 3-5 Southwestern League) held the ball far away on the perimeter trying to force Montrose (15-4, 6-2 SWL) to extend its defense.
“There’s (the Montrose defense) is a packed-in man. They put pressure on the ball,” Chandler said. “If we spread them out, our guards are quick enough to attack the basket and spread them out if they helped.”
She proved that on the first possession in which the Demons attempted it with 4 minutes, 32 seconds left in the third quarter. Chandler tied the game at 24 with an and-one layup. She finished with a team-high 18 points, helped by her eight made free throws.
The Indians were content with staying disciplined in their shell and waiting for the Demons to come to them.
“We knew they still had to execute and make plays, and for the most part they did that,” Montrose head coach Eric Sanchez said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They made the plays they needed to at the time they needed to make them.”
The Demons had to mount a comeback to even consider such a strategy. DHS trailed 9-2 with 3:25 left in the first quarter before it started to chip away.
“It was huge to keep it within a manageable margin,” DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said. “With Montrose, six, eight points, 10-points, that’s a big margin for them. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. That big of a margin is tough to come back from on them.”
Edwards led that charge with four points in the second quarter and a huge 3-pointer shortly after halftime. She finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in her first double-double of the season.
“She had a huge game,” Fitzpatrick said. “That was probably her best basketball game of the year.”
The Demons now have won two games in a row to end the regular season. They’ll begin postseason play Thursday in the Class 4A Southwestern League/Western Slope League tournament with a chance to clinch a spot in the state tournament.
“I was anticipating coming into the game that we’d be a No. 4 or No. 5 seed, but I don’t see why we couldn’t even move up now,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’ll seed us where they need, we just need to go and play basketball.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
