This week’s winter weather that canceled school and buried Durango cost the Durango High School girls basketball two games. When they finally made it back on the court, the Demons made the most of it.

Durango (6-1) stayed in control throughout and beat Aztec 31-26 on Saturday.

Demons junior Taylor Edwards led the team with eight points. Sienna Johnson had four points and grabbed seven rebounds, second to only Stephanie Bayse who led the team with eight rebounds.

“I’m really proud of the way the team competed,” Durango High School head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “If we can give that kind of effort on a nightly basis, we’ll be happy regardless of the result.”

With school and activities canceled, the Demons hadn’t spent an extended amount of time in a gym since Tuesday night’s 55-18 loss to defending Class 3A state champion Pagosa Springs.

As expected after an unplanned layoff, there was a bit of rust Saturday. Durango won despite turning the ball over 20 times and starting slow. Durango still went into Aztec (14-3) and beat a very good team on its home floor.

The Demons led for nearly the entire game. When it got close in the fourth quarter, Shilo Gillen and Johnson were clutch from the foul line to seal the deal.

“It was nice to come back and compete after the result we had on Tuesday,” Fitzpatrick said. “Pagosa Springs is such a good team, and they beat us in every facet of the game. I told the girls that I didn’t care about the outcome as much as I care about the effort. We didn’t give our best effort Tuesday, but the girls played hard (Saturday), and that’s what I was expecting to see.”

Up next for Durango is a 7 p.m. game Tuesday in Farmington against Piedra Vista.

jfries@durangoherald.com