The Durango boys basketball team couldn’t figure out how to consistently break Pagosa Springs’ full-court press, and it cost them.
The Pirates made a living from the free-throw line, in transition off turnovers and came out on top, 46-31, Thursday night at DHS.
Durango fell to 6-4 overall. Junior guard JT Neubert led the Demons with 11 points. Senior center Jacob Neubert had six points and six blocks.
“You’ve got to protect the ball at the end of the day,” Durango coach Alan Batiste said. “We didn’t give ourselves opportunities to score. Then when we had opportunities to score, it was a missed layup or it was a wide-open 3-pointer or something like that. We didn’t get any rhythm on offense all night.”
Pagosa Springs improved to 7-1 overall. Junior guard Colt Lewis led the Pirates with 21 points, shooting 7 of 12 from the free-throw line. Pirates senior forward Blake Laner scored 11 points.
The Neubert brothers’ impact was on display early.
Jacob Neubert and freshman forward Donovan Whitehead had blocks during the first two Pirates possessions. Jacob Neubert had a nice post-up move to score and tie the game at 2-2. Then, JT Neubert hit a 3-pointer off another block by his brother to put Durango out in front 7-4.
Lewis then scored inside to cut the Demons’ lead to 11-8 entering the second quarter.
Things went downhill for Durango in the second quarter, as the Pirates were able to get inside despite Durango’s size advantage. The Demons were sloppy with the ball, and Batiste had to call a timeout to try and settle the squad down.
After the timeout, freshman guard Kingston Kerlin hit a layup to put Durango up 13-11 with five minutes left. But Laner got Jacob Neubert to foul him on back-to-back possessions.
All of a sudden, the Demons couldn’t finish inside and kept turning the ball over. Pagosa Springs ended the half on a 10-0 run, up 22-14 at the intermission.
“They can’t touch the ball if we don’t protect the ball,” Batiste said about the lack of scoring inside. “They did a little bit of pressure but our guards need to be able to put themselves in position to throw them the basketball. But also work off them because when we get it inside out, then we’re able to expose the defense.”
Pagosa Springs beat Durango down the floor and crashed the glass to start the third quarter. The Pirates stretched their lead to 28-16 with six minutes left in the third.
The Demons tried to get back into the game, but Lewis hit a layup and a 3-pointer to push the Pirates’ lead to 35-20 with 3:14 left in the third.
The Demons continued to play sloppy against the Pagosa Springs pressure, down 37-24 after three quarters.
Offense was not found by either team to start the fourth. Senior forward Tyler Harms got the Demons on the board, but Pagosa began stalling midway through the fourth and the Demons started fouling with about three minutes left.
The Pirates didn’t shoot very well from the line, but it didn’t matter because the Demons had trouble breaking the press and kept turning the ball over until the end.
Durango, which is one victory away from matching its win total from all of last season, returns to the court Jan. 12 at home against Battle Mountain.
“Obviously we didn’t get it yet, but time will tell moving into the new year,” Batiste said. “We’re in a way better spot than we were last year. The boys know we played ourselves tonight. Not taking any credit away from Pagosa, but you can’t turn the basketball over with not a lot of pressure.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
