Durango girls basketball coach Lauren Moran has said on numerous occasions that the Demons’ identity is their defense.
Moran’s squad showed off that defense and turned over Battle Mountain constantly Friday night at DHS, dominating the Huskies 43-11.
“I was really happy with particularly how different people stepped up,” Moran said. “We’re very lean right now due to injuries so we played everybody and everybody gave us good minutes. It’s nice to have a team win like that where everyone contributed.”
Durango junior guard Tyler Trujillo is still out with an ankle injury, senior forward Carter Neiman has missed a few games with a back injury and junior forward Ellie White missed the game with an arm injury.
The Demons improved to 6-5 with the win. Junior wing Katelynn Sheppard led the Demons with 12 points on four 3-pointers that all came in the first half against the Battle Mountain zone defense. Junior guard Mariah Maestas had 10 points on 6 of 7 shooting from the free-throw line. Junior guard Lilly Fitzpatrick had nine points.
“They did a good job getting her the ball for sure,” Moran said about Durango getting Sheppard the ball. “She has such a nice shot and when she has the time and the space to get it off she shoots a really high percentage. She hasn’t scored a ton this year but she definitely has the ability to play like that every single game.”
Battle Mountain fell to 4-6. Junior forward Dakota Kurt led the Huskies with five points.
Both teams struggled with turnovers to start the game before Sheppard hit a 3-pointer at the top of the arc against the Battle Mountain zone with 5:45 left to open the scoring.
Battle Mountain committed multiple turnovers before sophomore guard Izzy Kovacik hit a shot inside with about four minutes left.
Scoring was hard to come by with the Demons taking their time again the Huskies zone. Durango struggled to beat the zone because it didn’t feed the ball into the middle of the zone and passed around the outside.
A bank shot 3-pointer by Kurt gave Battle Mountain a 5-3 lead with 2:30 left.
But Durango kept forcing turnovers. Two Fitzpatrick free throws and another Sheppard 3-pointer gave Durango an 8-5 lead after one quarter.
Sheppard hit another 3-pointer and Ryne Neiman hit a free-throw to push the lead to 14-7 with four minutes left.
Sheppard made her fourth 3-pointer of the half to put the Demons up 21-7 at halftime.
Maestas hit a shot inside to put the Demons up 24-9 with 6:30 left. Durango later extended its lead to 30-9 after three quarters.
Battle Mountain continued to cough up the ball to start the fourth. Maestas hit two free throws to open up the scoring and give the Demons a 32-9 lead with seven minutes left.
Kurt hit a layup to push Battle Mountain into double digits as it trailed 34-11 with 4:40 left.
Durango will host Eagle Valley on Saturday, starting at 11:30 a.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
