The Durango girls and boys basketball teams completed their season sweeps of Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday.
Despite treacherous road conditions and an occasionally raucous home crowd during M-CHS’ blackout night, the Demons left Cortez with two landslide victories.
The Lady Panthers lost to Durango 59-31 in December, and they were slow out of the gate on Tuesday, falling behind 12-2 in the first quarter.
“We did cut our turnovers down, but we also weren’t pressed like we’ve been before,” said M-CHS head coach John McHenry. “It’s just fundamentals that we’re not taking care of.”
Seven points by Aryelle Wright and six by Myra Simmons gave M-CHS a boost in the second quarter. But Durango junior Hilda Garcia caught fire for 15 points, including three 3-pointers from the same spot on the right wing, to send Durango to the break with a 35-15 advantage.
M-CHS got a bucket from Wright and a 3-pointer by Payton Keith in the third quarter, but that was it, and the Demons took a 52-20 lead into the final frame and closed things out to win 68-24.
Garcia led Durango (10-5, 1-0 4A/5A Southwestern League) with 23 points and Katrina Chandler added 13.
M-CHS (1-11, 0-3 Intermountain League) was led by Wright’s 11 and Simmons chipped in six.
“There for a period right before the end of the second half, we were getting some good ball movement and we were getting some good high-percentage shots that we were at least taking,” McHenry said as a positive he saw from his team. “So we weren’t having to push some things.”
The boys contest didn’t go much better for the Panthers.
M-CHS dropped a 64-45 contest to the Demons in the Four Corners Basketball Tournament earlier this month. And on Tuesday, the Panthers just never seemed to get comfortable offensively and Durango jumped out to an early 15-4 lead after one.
“For some reason we couldn’t get the ball to the high post,” explained M-CHS head coach Mike Hall. “We just couldn’t get it to them. They took it away and we couldn’t figure out how to move it around.”
M-CHS got a much needed 3-pointer from Daniel Fernandez to cut Durango’s lead to 19-7 with 5:15 left in the second quarter. And then in the final seconds of the half, after a free-throw by Coby Baer, Fernandez stole an inbounds pass and stuck it back to give the Panthers a lift, down just 24-16 at the break.
“We went into halftime and told them, ‘We played a horrible first half, but the momentum is in our favor so let’s go out and take advantage of it,’” Hall said. “Unfortunately we didn’t.”
The Demons outscored M-CHS 27-7 in the third to build a 51-23 lead entering the fourth. And although the Panthers opened the final frame on a 9-0 run to trim the lead to 19, Durango senior Tyler Ruetschle knocked down three treys in the quarter to send Durango away with a 69-40 win.
Kyle Kirkpatrick led the Demons (11-2, 0-1 SWL) with 20 points and Steven Wyman added 15. M-CHS (5-7, 2-1 IML) was led by Jasen Engel with 16 and Fernandez with eight.
M-CHS’ games scheduled for Wednesday in Pagosa Springs were canceled due to weather, so the Panthers are next in action on Saturday in Alamosa.
