Durango High School’s girls basketball team didn’t let longtime rival Montezuma-Cortez get its offense going until the outcome was all but decided, as the Demons downed the Panthers 41-19 Tuesday night in Cortez.
The Demons (5-10) nearly shut out the Panthers (2-10) in the first quarter and held an 11-1 advantage to start the second. DHS kept up the defensive pressure and took a 22-4 lead into halftime.
“For the most part, we played pretty solid defense and didn’t gamble,” DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said. “Offensively, we need to clean it up. We had a lot of turnovers against their half-court defense.”
Senior Hilda Garcia led the Demons with 19 points, 15 of which came from behind the 3-point line. Maddy McManus added nine points in the win.
The Demons (1-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) will be back at home for only the second time all season Friday when they host Grand Junction (5-10, 0-2 SWL).
“We’ve only had one (home game) so far, so they’ve been road warriors,” Fitzpatrick said of the Demons. “It was kind of our first road game of the season that has propelled us in the way that we’ve been playing, so hopefully that will continue this weekend.”
A late steal and score from Tymbree Florian sent the Bayfield High School girls basketball team to a 37-33 road win Tuesday night at Sargent High School.
“For the most part, I think we held the lead for some good chunks of the game but it fluctuated a bit,” BHS head coach Josh Kitchen said. “On the high end, I think we were up by about 10 at one point, then Sargent kind of fought back to make it close at the end.”
With the Farmers (4-6) back in the game, Florian snagged a steal and scored on the break with a little more than a minute remaining to put the Wolverines up by four to secure the win.
Florian led BHS (4-9) with 11 points, and Kira Riley added nine points. Macee Shultz helped the Wolverines with double-digit rebounds.
Bayfield (1-3 3A Intermountain League) will play Friday at Montezuma-Cortez (2-10, 0-4 IML).
Boys Basketball
Boys BasketballThe offensive struggles that have plagued the Durango High School boys basketball team led to more frustration for the Demons, who were hit with two technical fouls in a 64-30 loss to Montezuma-Cortez (8-5) on Tuesday in Cortez.
“If our team wants to find out a way to control the emotions and play basketball, we’ll be just fine, but we have to be disciplined on the floor, and that’s offensively and defensively,” DHS head coach Alan Batiste said. “But we’ve had it happen off the floor. We need to be more disciplined overall to be successful.”
Individual statistics were not available.
The Demons (3-12 1-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) will host Grand Junction (4-12, 0-1 SWL) on Friday at DHS.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
