On Tuesday night, he girls high school basketball game between Durango and Montezuma-Cortez looked like a dual between two senior guards inside Durango High School.
Durango’s Mariah Maestas and Montezuma-Cortez’s Taylor Whited exchanged shots from all over the court. Whited was especially hot from 3-point range in the first half and carried her team with 17 points. Maestas finished inside and stepped out for a few 3-pointers on her way to 22 points.
Unfortunately for Panthers fans, Whited didn’t have the supporting cast Maestas did and the Demons cruised to a 58-36 victory.
“In the first half, it was apparent that we hadn’t played a game in two and a half weeks,” Durango head coach Lauren Moran said. “We were pressing a little bit to try and score and get opportunities that weren’t there, which I attribute to everybody being a little bit overexcited about getting back on the court and playing at home; we haven’t played any home games since the first game of the season. Once we settled in the second half we played much better.”
The Demons improved to 7-2 overall after the win. Maestas’ 22 points were a season-high. She was 6-6 from the free-throw line and hit two 3-pointers.
Junior guard Claire Goodwin finished with 12 points for Durango. She hit a 3-pointer and was 5-8 from the free-throw line. Senior forward Ellie White had 11 points for the Demons.
Montezuma-Cortez fell to 3-5 overall after the loss. Whited’s 17 points came off five 3-pointers and a 2-pointer. Junior guard Sariah Jackson had 11 points for the Panthers.
“There were a lot of highs and lows,” Montezuma-Cortez head coach Brad Wright said. “Turnovers killed us; they were really the deciding factor of the game. We played defense pretty well for most of the game.”
It was a sloppy start to the first quarter with both teams struggling with turnovers. Durango tried to force a lot of passes in tight windows and paid the price. Maestas had the first four points for Durango off some nice penetration.
Montezuma-Cortez looked like it had a fast break layup to open up its scoring. But Maestas looked like she was shot out of a cannon and flew in for a chase-down block.
The Demons continued to defend well and cause turnovers but missed many easy looks. Most of their offense came on the fast break thanks to their strong press.
Durango executed a nice baseline out-of-bounds play as time expired. White finished an open layup to put Durango up 12-3 after one. The teams combined for at least 15 turnovers in the first quarter.
Wright attributed the Panthers’ turnovers to his players still trying to find themselves. Montezuma-Cortez graduated a lot of key seniors last year, according to Wright.
Both teams stopped turning the ball over as much to start the second quarter. Durango was aggressive and got to the free-throw line. Montezuma Cortez’s top offensive option early on was Whited. She was the only one who could consistently penetrate or shoot from the outside. Whited hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut Durango’s lead to 18-14 with 4:10 left in the second quarter.
“We didn't respond to that as quickly as we should have,” Moran said about Whited. “She's a strong player … we didn't do a great job of recognizing that and increasing focus on her until we were able to come in at halftime and then say, ‘Number one is the one that's hurting us.’ Then we locked in and did much better defensively.”
The Panthers’ fouling early in the quarter caught up with them as Durango got into the bonus for the last few minutes. After its lead was cut to two, Durango went on a 6-0 run.
Maestas and Goodwin pushed the Demons to a 32-21 halftime lead despite some incredible plays by Whithed. She couldn’t miss from 3-point range and was active on the defensive end. Whited had 14 first-half points.
“She’s the one that makes us go,” Wright said about Whithed. “She gets us into our offense and whenever she’s getting buckets like that, it’s a shot in the arm.”
The start of the third quarter mirrored the first quarter with both teams turning the ball over. The Demons moved the ball well in transition for easy scores. Goodwin was great at drawing fouls to get to the line. She hit a tough layup in transition to increase Durango’s lead to 44-30 with 1:30 left in the quarter.
Maestas continued her stellar showing to end the quarter. She cut toward the basket and finished a layup. On the next possession, she drove into the paint and kicked it out to junior Ryne Neiman for a midrange jumper at the buzzer to put Durango up 48-30.
“Mariah played a really good game both offensively and defensively,” Moran said. “We've talked to the whole team about how every single game it could be a different person who could lead us in scoring; it could be a different person who's asked to guard their best player. You want to have that kind of depth where you know you have multiple people who can score in double digits every single night. That just makes us a lot stronger.”
Montezuma-Cortez started the fourth on a 5-0 run but then started to turn the ball over again. Durango passed the ball beautifully in transition to rebuild its lead.
The Demons hit the road to play at Canon City on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. It’s the first game of the Canon City tournament for Durango.
Montezuma-Cortez plays at Centauri on Jan. 17 at 6 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
