In the first quarter against Durango on Wednesday night, the Montrose girls basketball team looked like it would have a tough time making free throws and outside shots on the road. But the Red Hawks hit several clutch jump shots and free throws late as Montrose beat Durango 49-46 in overtime on Durango’s senior night.
The Demons led heading into the fourth for the second time against Montrose this year. But Montrose started hitting its outside shots to get back in the game. Two free throws by junior Mayce Oberg with no time left sent the game into overtime. Junior London Schafer hit a 3-pointer in overtime that proved to be the dagger.
“The difference was they got stops when they needed to; they made buckets when they needed to and we didn’t,” Durango head coach Lauren Moran said. “We need to do better with our poise and composure down the stretch; we need to be better at our man defense.”
Durango fell to 16-5 overall and 5-3 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League after it shot 35% from the field, 35% from 3-point range and 67% from the free-throw line. All five of Durango’s losses, including two to Montrose, have come by five points or less.
Senior forward Ellie White led the Demons with 11 points on 3-8 shooting from the field, 1-2 from 3-point range and 2-2 from the free-throw line. White also finished with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Junior guard Claire Goodwin finished with 10 points and eight rebounds but struggled to find her outside shot; she finished 4-15 from the field and 1-8 from 3-point range.
Seniors Lilly Fitzpatrick and Mariah Maestas were great on defense and started a lot of transition opportunities for Durango. Maestas finished with six steals and Fitzpatrick with four.
Montrose improved to 19-3 overall and 7-2 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League. Oberg led the Red Hawks with 13 points and junior Maggie Legg added 12 points.
Durango struggled with turnovers early in the first. Montrose was active and forced a lot of bad passes by Durango that ended out of bounds. Montrose led 8-5 after the first quarter.
The Demons got the second quarter started the right way with a 3-pointer by senior guard Tyler Trujillo to tie the game and a steal by Goodwin.
Montrose started the second quarter settling for jump shots and had a few costly turnovers. DHS had a 13-11 lead with 4:40 left in the second quarter after White was aggressive from all over the court on offense.
Durango went into a 2-3 zone to end the half that gave the Red Hawks some trouble. The Demons led 17-15 at half; Durango got a lot of its offense in the first half through Ellie White. She had seven points, three rebounds and two assists at the half.
“In our last time playing them, Ellie also had a really good game, so we wanted to try to look inside to her as much as possible,” Moran said.
Montrose went inside to start the third quarter and finished with its size advantage. The Redhawks took a 20-19 lead with 5:45 left in the third.
The Demons cranked up their disruption on the defensive end and this led to more scores in transition. A layup by sophomore Jaelyn Alston off a steal gave Durango a 29-22 lead with two minutes left in the third. Durango led 31-25 after three.
Montrose continued to have success inside with its bigs crashing the offensive glass to create extra possessions. Legg hit two 3-pointers for Montrose to cut Durango’s lead to 34-31 with 5:30 left.
The Red Hawks took the lead in the fourth with some good composure against Durango’s press, leading to an open 3-pointer and a 36-35 lead. Fitzpatrick responded with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer for a 38-36 lead.
With about 30 seconds left in a tie game, Maestas missed a layup inside with about 30 seconds left. A long outlet pass hit Oberg on the other end. She finished what looked like a critical and-one basket. But the referees said she traveled and Durango got the ball back.
Trujillo had open right corner 3-pointer but instead found White inside for an open layup to go up 40-38 with seven seconds left.
After a timeout, Schafer drove up the court, threw up a layup that was missed. Oberg grabbed the rebound and was fouled on a putback at the buzzer. She made both free throws with no one at the line and the crowd screaming to tie the game at 40 to head into overtime.
Goodwin had a dime in transition to White for an open layup for the first points of overtime.
After a Goodwin turnover, Maestas tied up Montrose for the turnover. Trujillo scored a layup to give Durango a 46-44 lead. Then, the Demons doubled Oberg, leading to an open 3-pointer for Schafer with 30 seconds left to put the Red Hawks up 47-46.
“We were definitely trying to limit Oberg’s looks because it seems like everything they do goes through her,” Moran said. “Schafer and Legg hit a bunch of huge threes in the fourth quarter and overtime. We talked about them being shooters before the game and we know that they're capable of that.”
Junior Lilly Nelson hit two clutch free throws to give Montrose a 49-46 lead. Out of a timeout, Goodwin had a great look at the tying 3-pointer off staggered screens with about eight seconds left but couldn’t knock it down.
After the game, Durango’s four seniors (Maestas, Trujillo, Fitzpatrick and White) were honored in a senior night ceremony with their parents.
The Demons hit the road to play Grand Junction on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
