Dorothy had it right, there’s no place like home.
The Durango High School girls basketball team spent 14 of its first 15 games on the road, and when the Demons returned home for the first time since Dec. 19, they received a boost from the home crowd on their way to a 35-26 victory against Grand Junction High School on Friday night at DHS.
“It felt good,” DHS senior Hilda Garcia said of the home crowd. “We tried not to come out too aggressive because this is our home crowd, but we were so excited to play with our crowd behind us. It was good.”
The Demons have now won five of their last six games after starting the season 1-9, with all five of those wins coming in 2018.
“We played a lot of good teams on the road, and I think it’s all starting to click for us,” Garcia said. “At the beginning of 2018, we went to the Aztec tournament with a goal of going 2-1. We came out of there 2-1, and ever since then, we’ve been trying to keep the momentum and keep pushing because our goal is to make it to state.”
The Demons (6-10, 2-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) didn’t waste much time getting into a rhythm and held an 11-6 lead after the first quarter.
Grand Junction (5-11, 0-3 SWL) matched the Demons’ output in the second quarter, and after a bucket a couple seconds before the horn for halftime sounded, the two went into the break with DHS up 19-14.
Grand Junction had a distinct size advantage on Durango, with three players listed at 6-foot or taller, while the Demons don’t have anyone taller than 6-foot. But the Demons negated the Tigers’ size with good defense and strong rebounding from the whole roster.
“We were just trying to play solid team defense to keep them off the boards,” DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said.
The third quarter was the Demons best of the night, as they extended their lead to nine points behind a superb defensive effort that held the Tigers to three points in the quarter.
The Demons also got a boost on offense from Garcia, who scored six of her game-high 14 points in the third.
Durango held a 26-17 lead entering the fourth, and on its first possession, Garcia drained a 3 from the right wing that put the Demons up 12 points. Grand Junction didn’t get back within single digits until there were fewer than 30 seconds remaining.
Lily Chick finished with six points for the Demons. All six of her points came in the second quarter.
Emma Fitzgerald added five points, and Emma Hacket and Maddy McManus chipped in four points each.
The Demons made 11 of their 15 free-throw attempts.
Mackenzie Younker led Grand Junction with 10 points, and Gracie Olkowski added seven points.
The Tigers got nearly half of their points at the free-throw line, where they were 11-of-21.
Durango will host Montrose (9-8, 2-1 SWL) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
