It took a half of basketball for the Durango High School boys basketball team to solve the Piedra Vista offensive attack, but when the Demons found a spark and turned up the pressure, they ran away with Tuesday night’s game.
Trailing by two at halftime, Durango exploded in the second half and outscored the Panthers 46-27 en route to an easy 72-55 victory.
Lucas Baken led the Demons with 23 points on a torrid 7-for-8 from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line. Demons senior Orion Clay had 17 points and seven rebounds, and Terrence Trujillo finished with 12 points and six assists.
“They took it to us in that first half, but it’s all about tempo with us,” said Durango head coach Alan Batiste. “We wanted to push the tempo in the second half, and that ended up being the difference.”
Durango (6-3) came out in the second half with a very active full-court press that had the Panthers (9-5) out of sorts and set the tone for the rest of the evening. The turnovers forced by the Demons on defense led to a lethal Durango fastbreak that was instrumental in a 14-3 run to start the half.
Baken and Clay took over from there.
The two seniors combined for 27 second-half points, including a two-handed dunk by Clay that sent the gym into a frenzy and put an exclamation point on a dominant second half.
“There was a steal at the other end and Terrence and I made eye contact,” said Clay, son of Amee and Daron Clay. “When I got it, I didn’t notice the guy trailing me, so I thought I had a wide open lane to the basket.”
Clay didn’t, but it didn’t matter. The 6-foot-3 left-hander threw down a dunk over the trailing Panther that changed the momentum of the game for good.
Both teams shot out from the field. The Demons and Panthers exchanged makes from long range as they combined to make eight 3-pointers in the first quarter. Piedra Vista led 18-16 after the first quarter and sustained the two-point lead at halftime.
It was Baken, Clay and the Demons’ swarming full-court trap that turned the tables for the second game in a row.
“We love to press, so when coach wants to let the dogs out, the dogs come out on defense,” said Baken, son of Dante and Jessica Baken. “We have a lot of good athletes on our team and communication is important. We’ve been playing together for a long time so communicating is one of our strengths.”
Piedra Vista was led by Keegan Acosta’s 16 points. Sophomore Jarrett Graham had 13, and Jimmy Wood finished with 11 points and five rebounds in the Panthers’ loss.
Durango will play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Ignacio at Fort Lewis College’s Whalen Gymnasium.
jfries@durangoherald.com
