Most teams don’t win when they fail to score a point in the first quarter, but Durango girls basketball proved to be the exception in its 44-39 win over Falcon in the Tiger Classic in Canon City on Saturday.
Durango was outscored 10-0 in the first quarter against Falcon, but the Demons responded with 37 points over the next two quarters for the comeback victory. The win over Falcon completed a 2-0 weekend for the Demons after they beat Canon City 26-18 on Thursday.
“I feel good about how the weekend went,” Durango girls basketball head coach Lauren Moran said. “In our game against Canon City on Thursday, we really struggled to score offensively, but we played really strong defense, and that allowed us to be successful particularly in the second half … Falcon is a really strong team … so that was a really nice testament to the girls that they were able to not get too down on themselves.”
Durango improved to 5-5 overall after the two wins. Canon City dropped to 4-5 overall after the Durango loss, and Falcon dropped to 4-3 overall after losing to the Demons. It’s a nice bounce back for the Demons; after Durango started the season 0-4, it has won five of its last six games.
The Demons’ win against Canon City was their lowest scoring win of the season. Durango led 8-4 after the first quarter and led 11-10 at half. The Demons increased their lead to 19-13 after three quarters.
Junior Jaelyn Alston led the Demons with six points; seniors Aysia Mathews and Josie Phare added five points in the win.
The main reason Durango struggled so much offensively against Canon City was because of the Tigers’ box-and-one defense against senior guard Claire Goodwin, according to Moran. This defense involves a player face-guarding the one opposing offensive player (Goodwin) while the rest of the team stays in a box.
Moran took the blame for not preparing her team for that defense. She thought that type of defense would be played during league play and wasn’t prepared for that look on Thursday.
After trailing 10-0 after the first quarter to Falcon, the Demons led 18-15 at the half. They increased that advantage to 37-27 after three quarters.
“We were able to stop turning the ball over as much,” Moran said. “We were able to make nice passes against the press and get some high-percentage looks.”
Goodwin had a nice bounceback game against Falcon, finishing with a team-high 18 points.
The Demons played Pagosa Springs at home on Tuesday night, but results weren’t available at press time.
Durango’s boys basketball team didn’t fare as well in Canon City, losing 59-42 to Canon City on Thursday and 69-50 to Cheyenne Mountain on Saturday. The two losses dropped Durango to 3-6 overall.
“The biggest thing we realized was that we’re losing games in four or five minutes,” Durango boys basketball head coach Alan Batiste said. “So we’re just trying to figure that out … obviously we lost by 20, but they’re going on big runs in four to five minutes due to turnovers and reverting back to offensive struggles.”
No individual or team stats were available.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
