It took a rival coming into the Durango High School gym for the Demons’ boys basketball team to put forth its most complete effort of the season.
Durango (8-1) played at home for the first time all season Friday night as it opened its home tournament with a nightcap against Montezuma-Cortez. The Demons delivered in a front of a huge home crowd with its best game of the season, according to coach Alan Batiste.
The Demons were dominant in the second half and ran away from their rivals in a 64-45 win.
Kyle Kirkpatrick led Durango with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Steven Wyman added 10 points in the win.
“I think the key to the second half was us being able to slow down on offense and pick up the pace on defense,” Kirkpatrick said. “I made a few shots, and we were moving the ball well. That was as good of a half as we’ve played all year.”
Cortez hung right with the bigger Durango squad and stayed within a few possessions throughout the opening half in a packed DHS gym. Jason Engle was a big reason why the Panthers hung in there for so long, as the Cortez junior led all scorers with 12 first-half points. The visitors had no answer in the second half, however.
“I thought that if we could hold them under 50, we’d win by 20,” Batiste said. “The defense was awesome in the second half, and it was just a well-balanced game for us. Definitely our best of the season.”
Durango started the third quarter with a Kirkpatrick 3-pointer and a traditional three-point play by Wyman after a dunk that brought the crowd to its feet. At the end of the 8-minute frame, those six points were more than the visitors scored the entire quarter.
Durango turned up the defensive pressure, and the Panthers (2-5) couldn’t buy a bucket. After the dominant stretch of play, the Demons extended a six-point halftime lead to a much more comfortable 18-point advantage heading into the final quarter.
“We just missed a lot of shots,” Panthers head coach Michael Hall said. “Kirkpatrick got hot for them, and they were executing on offense when we couldn’t get anything to fall, so that was the difference.”
Engle, who led all scorers with 18 points, tried to bring some life into the offense in the final quarter, but it was far too late to make an impact as the Durango lead approached 20 points, allowing the Demons to drain the clock beautifully.
Zach Geautheaux had nine points for DHS, and Daniel Fernandez added eight points for the Panthers.
Durango will host Bayfield in Saturday’s 7 p.m. game. at Durango High, while Montezuma-Cortez will face Ignacio at 5 p.m.
jfries@durangoherald.com
