The Durango Demons’ performance Friday night against Battle Mountain was a microcosm for their entire season.
There were impressive stretches of play like the third quarter, where Durango dominated defensively and imposed their will in the paint and on the boards. But the Demons shot themselves in the foot with sloppy turnovers in the fourth and allowed the Huskies to get back in the game.
However, Durango had a big enough lead that it built up in the third quarter and hung on to beat Battle Mountain, 70-62.
“It kind of came with the territory, we haven’t played in three and a half weeks,” Durango coach Alan Batiste said. “I knew we were going to be a little bit slow to get going. But once we went on that run and got that lead up to 20, that message was to keep going. We just have to finish the game. It was more being disciplined on defense and disciplined on offense.”
Durango improved to 7-4. Senior center Jacob Neubert led the Demons with 15 points. Senior guard Zach Unruh had 13 points and freshman forward Donovan Whitehead had 12 points. Junior guard Noah Miles and senior forward Tyler Harms scored nine and eight points, respectively.
“That’s the only way we’re going to be successful,” Batiste said about his balanced scoring. “In Durango basketball, we spread the wealth … again that could’ve been even more if we shot better from the free-throw line. That definitely is going key moving forward into league, we’ve got to have balance because we don’t have that type of guy that can take over a full game.”
Battle Mountain fell to 1-11. Junior Blake Roberts had 13 points to lead the Huskies. Junior guard Jose Madero had 11 points, while junior Charlie Strauch had 10 points.
Durango started off slow but forced turnovers. The Demons got the ball inside to Neubert and he scored. A backdoor cut and slam by Noah Miles increased the lead to 10-5 with 3:45 left in the first.
A nice pullup jump shot by Unruh on the baseline gave the Demons a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.
Battle Mountain opened up the second quarter with two baskets before Neubert had a bucket inside plus the foul to put Durango up 15-12 with 6:40 to go.
But two baskets inside by Battle Mountain gave the Huskies a 16-15 lead.
Jumpers by Whitehead and Unruh gave Durango a 22-19 lead with three minutes left.
Durango took better care of the ball and extended its lead to 29-21 with an Unruh 3-pointer, but two layups from Battle Mountain after beating the Durango press cut the lead to 29-25 with a minute left. The Demons led 31-25 at half.
Unruh opened up the scoring with a breakaway layup off a Battle Mountain turnover.
Whitehead was dominant in the third quarter, imposing his mature frame on the offensive boards and he got to the foul line.
Whitehead got to the line on back-to-back possessions and made two of four free throws to put Durango up 35-25 with 6:15 left in the third.
A Miles put-back after a turnover put Durango up 42-31.
Whitehead then got on the offensive boards once again off a free throw and put the Demons up 44-31.
Durango could have extended its run even more, but it missed free throws and layups. The Demons were 5 of 16 from the free-throw line in the third quarter.
Even with those mistakes, the Demons increased the lead to 51-43 off a dunk by Neubert, which got the crowd to its feet with 20 seconds left in the third. A Kingston Kerlin fadeaway at the buzzer gave Durango a 53-36 lead after three.
Another Neubert slam put the crowd on its feet, but a baseline jumper by Huskies junior Kitz Petrovski cut the lead to 65-54 with 2:20 left.
Turnovers killed the Demons. They were super sloppy in the fourth and Battle Mountain cut the lead to 68-59 with 40 seconds left.
“We didn’t focus,” Batiste said. “We’ve had this conversation all week in practice about finishing practice on a high note. We just didn’t finish the game the way we were supposed to finish the game. If we finish the game, we win by 20.”
In the end, the Demons held on for the victory.
Durango will host Eagle Valley Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
