An ugly injury in the closing minute of the first quarter momentarily stunned the Durango High School girls basketball team, but the Demons rallied to topple rival Montrose 47-37 on Saturday afternoon at DHS.
With about 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Durango’s Danielle Lee attacked the lane but got tangled up in her move to the hoop. Lee collapsed to the floor and looked to the DHS bench with anguish on her face as she grabbed her right knee. After a couple minutes on the floor, Lee was carried off the court and into the trainer’s room.
“It was really hard watching Dani go down, having my injury last year” said DHS senior Brett Rowland, who suffered a torn ACL last season. “It just broke my heart, but we love her and that’s who we were playing for in the second half of the game, and I’m glad we could do that for her.”
Lee didn’t return to the court, and after the game she had her right leg wrapped and used crutches to leave the school.
Montrose (9-9, 2-2) held a 21-16 lead at halftime.
The Demons (7-10, 3-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) limited Montrose (9-9, 2-2 SWL) to only two points in the third quarter for a 27-23 advantage at the start of the fourth.
“I think, for the most part, we played good defense the whole game, we just committed too many fouls in the first half,” DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said. “(Montrose) made a few more free throws in the first half and that was the difference.”
Durango kept the pressure on Montrose and got its lead to 38-27. Montrose made a late push to get within six points at 38-32 with 1:30 remaining. But the Demons got control back to secure the victory.
The Demons scored the majority of their points at the free-throw line, where they were 29-of-42, including 14-of-17 in the fourth quarter.
Hilda Garcia led Durango with 17 points. She was 15-of-18 from the free-throw line.
Tayler Dossey added 11 points, and Emma Fitzgerald and Rowland finished with seven points apiece for the Demons.
Durango will play at Grand Junction High School (5-11, 0-3 SWL) on Friday.
The Bayfield High School girls basketball team showed improvements from the last time it met Centauri, but the Falcons were still too much for the Wolverines in a 57-18 victory Saturday afternoon in Bayfield.
“Last time we played them, we really struggled to break their press, but I thought we did a better job with it today,” BHS head coach Josh Kitchen said. “I thought overall the girls played better even though the score was pretty close to the same as our first game against them.”
Centauri (14-1, 5-1 3A Intermountain League) beat Bayfield (4-11, 1-5 IML) 58-21 on Jan. 12.
Kira Riley led the Wolverines with six points, and Kitchen said Macee Shultz provided a good spark off the bench.
Bayfield will play at Monte Vista (4-9, 1-4 IML) on Friday.
Boys Basketball
Boys BasketballBayfield High School’s boys basketball team put the pressure on Centauri and smothered the Falcons (8-7, 1-5 3A Intermountain League) on defense en route to a 62-41 win Saturday afternoon at BHS.
“We had good back-to-back night efforts on pressure defense and made some improvements with our rotation,” BHS head coach Jeff Lehnus said. “The boys did well and played hard. We were up at half, but wanted the mentality to finish a team when they’re down and the boys did a great job with that.”
The Wolverines (10-5, 5-1 IML) came away with 16 steals in the game.
Ryan Phelps led BHS with 24 points and nine rebounds. Hayden Farmer added 14 points, and Dax Snooks had 12 points after heating up from long range.
Bayfield will play Friday at Monte Vista (4-9, 0-5 IML).
An ugly first half was wiped away in the second half, as the Durango and Montrose boys basketball teams battled back and forth, with the Indians (13-5, 3-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) earning a 30-26 victory Saturday at DHS.
“I know I’ve always been saying I’m proud of the boys, but this is the first time all season we’ve been consistent,” DHS head coach Alan Batiste said. “We’ve now had back-to-back games were we’ve given up a combined 62 points, and that’s amazing. I’m happy. We showed some consistency this weekend.”
Stats from the game were not available, but Batiste said the Demons (3-13, 1-3 SWL) got great minutes from Jordan Woolverton. Batiste said Woolverton “was aggressive and a big time competitor, and the boys fed off it.”
Durango will play Friday at Grand Junction (5-13, 1-2 SWL)
kschneider@durangoherald.com
