On Tuesday night at Montrose, the Durango boys basketball team didn’t have the magical comeback it had against Rampart in them. Despite the Demons being down nine after three quarters in both games, Montrose pulled away to beat Durango 61-47 in the 5A Sweet 16.
Montrose lived at the free-throw line in the second half after the Demons were competitive for most of the first. But Durango couldn’t hit shots in the fourth like it did against Rampart and Montrose made better decisions than Rampart.
“Every time we were trying to catch momentum, there was some type of call on the floor,” Durango coach Alan Batiste said. “So that's hard to do because you can't get a rhythm and can't get a run, but we still were hanging in there... at the end of the day, we executed everything we wanted to do. We challenged the boys to get downhill, get to the paint and we just didn't get those calls. Free throws were 31 to 12; we had just as much contact. But the game is the game. Overall, the boys played their tails off and I'm proud of all of them.”
No. 20 seed Durango finished the season 14-11 overall, with three losses to Montrose. Sophomore guard King Kerlin led the Demons with 13 points. Senior forward Ethan White added 10 points.
Montrose improved to 19-6 overall and the No. 4 seed Red Hawks advanced to the Great 8. Senior forward Kaleb Ferguson led Montrose with 18 points. Lane Pressler and CJ Rocco each added 15 points.
Neither team could get anything going offensively early and both teams weren’t allowing offensive rebounds for second-chance points. Kerlin had a nice drive and contested finish to put Durango up 5-4 with 4:30 left in the first quarter.
Durango struggled with turnovers and finishing inside as Montrose went on a 9-0 run to go up 13-5 with 1:40 left in the first. Montrose settled down on offense and got in the paint. Durango finished the first quarter with four consecutive points to trail 13-9.
The Demons started the second with four points to tie the game at 13 with 6:10 left. Freshman guard Taj Batiste had a nice finish inside for the tying bucket.
“We just stayed in our zone, we got active and we started picking up full court,” Batiste said. “We went from there, they made their turnovers, but they also missed their shots. You always have to capitalize when they do that.”
The Red Hawks hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push its lead back to 19-15. Montrose looked more comfortable against the Durango zone defense and the Demons didn’t look sharp on offense; they settled for tough 3-pointers or were out of control with their drives. Montrose led 26-17 at halftime.
Durango crawled back into the game to start the third quarter by forcing Montrose to take jump shots and the Demons got to the basket. A strong drive by senior forward Marcus Cullum cut Montrose’s lead to 29-23 with 5:50 left in the third.
The Red Hawks got into the bonus about halfway through the third as the referees were quick to blow their whistle. Montrose hit some free throws but the Demons had a nice stretch of offense when senior guard Noah Miles hit a 3-pointer and White scored an and-one buck to cut Montrose’s lead to 34-29 with 2:20 left in the third.
Durango got called with multiple push-in-the-back rebounding calls late in the third which stopped its momentum and sent Montrose to the free-throw line. Montrose led 45-36 after three.
Montrose showed why it’s one of the top teams in 5A to start the fourth. The Red Hawks scored seven points in the 90 seconds of the fourth to go up 52-37. They turned Durango over, got in transition and finished inside the paint.
The Red Hawks worked the clock for the rest of the quarter as Durango forced shots to try and start a comeback. Durango was scoreless for four minutes in the middle of the fourth as Montrose extended its lead to as many as 17 points.
Durango will lose key senior contributors Miles, Cullum, White and Otto Aaland. But the Demons should return a lot of promising players like Kerlin, Batiste, junior Brady Hoerl and sophomore Mason Miller.
“It was beautiful that we could care about each other and just make sure they played for one another,” Batiste said about this year’s team. “Seeing their competitiveness and them grow from not having an identity to have a staple identity that was defense, hard work and being disciplined. It all came out these last two games. Seeing that growth, they set the bar and the standard for the next groups that will come through. So that was just really amazing for this team to have that.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
