Chasing a share of the Southwestern League regular-season championship, the Durango Demons took care of preceding business.
Durango High School (12-5, 8-1 Southwestern League) earned a 55-43 home win against Montrose (7-11, 2-7 SWL) to set up a big game against Grand Junction (17-2, 7-0 SWL) at home at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
If the Demons can beat Grand Junction in their regular-season finale, they will earn at least a share of the SWL regular-season championship with the Tigers still facing two more games.
“We took care of business knowing we had to beat Montrose to have a shot at Junction,” said Durango’s Trent Andrews, a 6-6 senior center. “We haven’t had a league championship in seven years.”
After scraping past the Montrose Indians 51-48 on the road Jan. 25, the Demons left no question in Friday night’s game. It marked the first time in head coach Alan Batiste’s tenure that the Demons have beat the Indians twice in the regular season.
“It is the first time in at last six years we have done that. It feels good,” Batiste said. “They are our new rival. Everybody gets hyped up – and the school always will – for the Cortez games, but Montrose, when it comes down to sports, they are our new rival.”
Durango led by double digits quickly in the first quarter and never relented. Andrews led the Demons with 15 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. He scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half.
“Trent is always the key. We have to give him the ball,” Batiste said. “He has improved so much, the most improved guy on the team.”
The Demons shot just 2-of-13 from behind the 3-point line, but 15-for-21 shooting from the free-throw line helped make up for that.
DHS junior guard Nate Atencio finished the game with 13 points for DHS, and senior Isiah Mayberry had nine points and four steals.
“Right now, it is our defense that’s been winning us games,” Mayberry said. “We feel if we keep playing like we have been on defense and our offense clicks a little bit, we can get a win (against Grand Junction).”
Montrose did its best to mount a fourth-quarter comeback. The Tigers’ pressure defense forced Durango mistakes, but a breakaway dunk by Andrews followed by a big blocked shot by the senior big man helped put the Tigers away for good.
“We got passive. The kids looked up, and it is the first time we have been in this position where we were up 15 to 18 the whole game,” Batiste said. “We got passive, and Montrose got us on our heels, and we didn’t know how to handle it until we got aggressive and got things going toward the basket.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
