The Durango boys basketball team was on pace for nearly 100 points after a 23-12 advantage over Ignacio after the first quarter in Durango’s season opener Friday night inside Durango High School.
But Ignacio showed fight with its defense despite being smaller and less athletic all over the court. The Bobcats took advantage of some sloppy Durango offense and took the lead in the third quarter. But Durango settled down, took care of the ball and turned over Ignacio in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 62-47 win.
“Ignacio came out and they’re going to come out and play hard,” Durango head coach Alan Batiste said. “Every team we play over here, Ignacio, Bayfield, Cortez and all them, they want to beat Durango. We’ve got to meet that challenge. But overall, we still have a lot of a lot of work to do. You can see the struggle on the offensive end. But, I knew that was coming anyway because we've only gone over offense the last two weeks or week and a half.”
Durango improved to 1-0 overall after it shot 38% from the field, 24% from the 3-point line and 75% from the free-throw line.
The Demons were led by senior guard Noah Miles’ 18 points on 7-19 shooting from the field, 1-7 from the 3-point line and 3-4 from the free-throw line along with seven rebounds and six steals. Sophomore guard King Kerlin had 12 points on 5-12 shooting from the field and 2-5 from beyond the arc.
Senior forward Marcus Cullum had 10 points on 4-10 shooting from the field, 0-2 from downtown, 2-2 from the free-throw line, nine rebounds and nine assists.
“He's huge,” Batiste said about Cullum. “That's our offense. We go through him and he's catching from the high post standpoint so he gets to see a little bit more than what he sees in the post … He exerts so much energy on the floor it's tremendous for our team.”
Ignacio fell to 1-1 overall after it shot 33% from the field, 31% from 3-point range and 73% from the free-throw line.
Junior Ambrose Valdez led the Bobcats with 15 points. Senior Angelo Frost had 12 points and junior DJ Hendren had 10 points. Ignacio head coach Trae Seibel complimented Hendren for taking on the task of guarding Miles well.
“I’m really proud of our performance; our boys came to play,” Seibel said. “We’re a small 2A school; we’ve got 190-something kids, so it was an honor to play against a big 5A school. For us to be in it and in that third quarter going into that fourth quarter, have a chance to pull away but it just didn’t work out for us tonight. The boys played so hard and we really brought our best for now. We have a long way to go but this shows we can make a run toward the end.”
Ignacio took an early 8-4 with 5:20 left in the first quarter. The Bobcats got most of their points in transition after Durango didn’t get back in transition after some sloppy turnovers.
Durango started executing its sets and found a lot of easy looks inside thanks to some nice back door cuts.
The Demons have a lot of length no matter what combinations they use. Durango had active hands and started causing turnovers late in the first quarter. Miles was especially active and finished at the basket in transition or got fouled and hit his free throws.
Durango’s size showed on its final possession, where it got three offensive rebounds and Kerlin made a step-back jumper before the buzzer to put the Demons up 23-12 after one.
Ignacio started off the second quarter on a 4-0 run in the first few minutes. Durango wasn’t hitting its jump shots and the Demons couldn’t finish second chances inside. Ignacio cut the lead to 23-20 with three minutes to go thanks to another runout and finish by Hendren.
Kerlin scored Durango’s first points of the second quarter with two minutes left thanks to a step back 3-pointer.
Ignacio started to find some offensive success thanks to some better shot selection. A 3-pointer by sophomore Cayson Burcham cut the Durango lead to 30-27 before halftime.
The Bobcats cut the lead to 33-32 thanks to a 3-pointer by Frost early in the third quarter. Durango continued to struggle to get back on defense. Ignacio took its first lead of the second half 36-35 thanks to a midrange jump shot by the Bobcats.
“The thing we're going to thrive on is defense,” Batiste said. “We settled, we were complacent on defense and were complacent on offense. So those two are not a good mix.”
Senior forward Otto Aaland got to the basket and showed his touch at the end of the third. Miles came off the bench with less than a minute to go in the quarter and had a nice transition finish as Durango led 47-43 after three quarters.
Durango started the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run. The Demons were more disciplined on the offensive and defensive end. Ignacio wasn’t getting the transition opportunities it had earlier and was struggling in the half-court. Durango was creating turnovers, finishing in transition and crashing the glass well.
“It was our turnovers,” Seibel said about the deciding factor late. “Right off the bat, turnovers as a team. But those are things we can correct moving on later in the season. We have a bright future with this group.”
Durango plays at home against Bayfield on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Ignacio plays at Mancos on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
