The Durango High School girls basketball team will get a chance to defend its Aztec Rumble in the Jungle tournament championship Saturday.
In the semifinals Friday, the Demons used a big second half from Brenna Wolf to get past Arizona’s Rock Point High School, 44-38.
Wolf scored 12 of her game-high 14 points in the second half to help send Durango (6-5) back to the championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday inside Aztec High School’s Lillywhite Gymnasium.
“Wolf played really well on both ends,” DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick said. “That is her career high.”
Saturday night, the Demons will get an early look at 5A/4A Southwestern League rival Montrose. The Indians (10-1) were able to beat the tournament-host Tigers Friday night to stretch their win streak to eight games.
“I hope they are excited to be playing in the championship,” Fitzpatrick said. “They did the work to get themselves there.”
Friday’s win wasn’t easy for the Demons. Rock Point (9-2) raced out to a 7-0 lead, but the Demons would match the Cougars at 7-7 after a 3-point shot from Emma Fitzgerald with 1 minute, 5 seconds to go in the first quarter. With 12 seconds to play in the first, a Mason Rowland jump shot gave the Demons a 9-7 lead.
Rock Point would tie the game at 15-15 before halftime, as the Demons struggled to get passes or shots inside the paint against Tamira John of the Cougars.
But the Demons were able to build decent leads at times in the second half, as Fitzgerald finished with 10 points and Jael Larson added seven to go with Wolf’s big half.
“Fitzgerald found her outside shot, and Larson made some timely free throws,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was tough scoring on the inside. We had good looks but didn’t finish.”
John led the Cougars with nine points. Rylisha Begay added eight after she went 6-of-6 shooting at the foul line.
DHS will try to push its win streak to four games Saturday in the big game against Montrose.
The Demons erased the memory of a tough finish to 2019 with a nice win to open the new year.
Durango High School’s boys basketball team (6-5) secured a 64-53 win against Bloomfield High School out of New Mexico on Friday night.
The Demons raced out to a 22-12 lead after one quarter and never looked back.
Bloomfield (4-7) had no answer for Durango’s Anthony Flint, who scored 22 points while Martin Cuntz added 18.
“Anthony came out hitting four 3s in the first half,” DHS head coach Alan Batiste said. “We couldn’t pull away from them but kept a 10- to 14-point lead the whole game and finished strong.”
Batiste also credited Haezen Mestas for having a terrific game doing all the small things needed to win.
The Demons are now off until next weekend’s Southwest Classic tournament with games against Bayfield and Montezuma-Cortez in Cortez.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
