It wasn’t the plan for Mariah Maestas’ responsibilities to change like this.
Maestas was supposed to be the starting shooting guard for the Durango girls basketball team under first-year coach Lauren Moran. But junior guard Tyler Trujillo’s season-ending injury changed all that.
Maestas had to take over point guard duties for a young team, a year after star guard Mason Rowland took the Demons to the state final four.
Maestas, a junior, hasn’t skipped a beat. She controls the Demons’ offense and can shoot from the outside. She has a great midrange jumper and is hard to stop going to her right hand.
Maestas also has active hands and moves her feet well on defense.
“The way that she’s stepped up has been extremely valuable,” Moran said. “She’s been a consistent presence for us, and it’s been an excellent growth opportunity for her because she’s really had to step into a new role I don’t think she would have been comfortable in before.”
Maestas started playing basketball in the second grade after her father Jonathan introduced her to the game. She grew up playing point guard but slid to the two-guard spot when she realized Trujillo was better at playing the point.
But Trujillo wasn’t the only player to go down this season for the Demons. Senior forward Carter Neiman, junior Katelynn Sheppard, junior guard Lilly Fitzpatrick and junior forward Ellie White have all missed games due to injury.
Not Maestas. She’s been the constant in an ever-evolving rotation this season.
“Obviously when those players were gone, the people who stepped up didn’t have as much experience because they were mostly freshmen and some sophomores,” Maestas said. “It helped me as a point guard learning to adapt and being able to teach whoever was around the plays and stuff. It helped my ball handling and showed me how to dominate a game.”
Maestas has dominated a box score in multiple games this season. She scored 29 points at Grand Junction last month and 20 points against Grand Junction Central on Monday.
Moran said the biggest difference she’s seen in Maestas is that she went from being passive at times early in the season to being more of a confident scorer as the season went on.
“She helps me with my confidence,” Maestas said about Moran. “Before the game that I had 29 points in, she told me that I needed to take at least 25 shots. She gives me reassurance that I can shoot the ball.”
Maestas wants to be louder and more demanding as a leader, and she realizes she’s gotten better at it this season.
“She is fairly reserved, she’s not a vocal leader but she is friends with everyone on the team,” Moran said. “Everybody wants to be around her, she’s extremely competitive and she works on her game all the time. In those ways, she leads by example.”
Going forward, Maestas said she wants to improve on drawing fouls and not shying away from contact when she drives to the basket.
The Demons’ injury luck has turned around, though. White, Fitzpatrick and Carter Neiman are all healthy and playing again.
At 10-10, the Demons have two regular-season games left and look to secure a playoff berth. Maestas’s goal for the rest of the season is for her team to stay healthy and push through this long season.
Maestas, who wants to play college basketball while studying anesthesiology at a small school, is excited for the future of Durango basketball.
Although she and the rest of the team will miss seniors Carter and Adde Neiman after the 2023-24 campaign, she’s confident the reserves can fill those roles with the playing time and experience they’re getting this year.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
