<\/p>\n
The significance of the Montezuma-Cortez versus Durango rivalry was evident on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
It was clear \u2013 from the jam-packed parking lot, the crowded bleachers and the liveliness in the gymnasium \u2013 that it was a contest that meant something.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the rivalry starts in middle school and continues in high school,\u201d said Durango head coach Tim Fitzpatrick. \u201cSo I think on both sides, the kids have a little more energy and they want to do well against their rival.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Cortez fans, that energy didn\u2019t translate to success to the court.<\/p>\n
The Durango Demons (10-2) punctured the Lady Panthers\u2019 (7-6) zone defense early, finding holes and scoring in the paint to build a 14-5 lead in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a good job attacking where we needed to attack,\u201d said Fitzpatrick. \u201cWe did a good job moving the ball. I don\u2019t know if we shot the ball real well, but we did get good looks.\u201d<\/p>\n
M-CHS head coach John McHenry said that the Lady Panthers were focused on stopping Durango junior Katrina Chandler \u2013 who entered the contest averaging nearly 17 points per game \u2013 and by keying on her, other options opened up for the Demons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what she could do,\u201d said McHenry. \u201cWe knew that if she gets wound up, she can take it in against you. So it\u2019s kind of pick your poison: You either take it from her or who she dishes off to. Which in this case, I bet their shooters were almost 100 percent in that first quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensively, the Lady Panthers struggled to score. They connected on just three field goals and shot 3-of-12 from the free-throw line to enter the half trailing 26-9.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe offense was working,\u201d explained McHenry. \u201cWe were taking good shots; some nights they don\u2019t drop, some nights they do. For instance, against Bayfield we couldn\u2019t miss. This night, just a little added length of Durango in our face was enough to divert it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Demons held M-CHS to just four points in the third quarter, and although the Lady Panthers scored 13 in the final frame, Durango wrapped it up with a 49-26 win.<\/p>\n
Durango got scoring contributions from nine different players, led by Taylor Edwards\u2019 12 points and 11 from Chandler. Kiselya Plewe and Tayla Topaha led the Lady Panthers with seven points apiece and Simone Lopez scored five.<\/p>\n
With M-CHS now in the Intermountain League and Durango still in the Southwestern League, both Fitzpatrick and McHenry noted that while the rivalry is important, their focus is more broad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis used to be a league game, but it\u2019s not anymore, so it\u2019s kind of a nice break,\u201d said Fitzpatrick. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll just try to get ready continuing in our league season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShort-term memory, this one is done, it\u2019s gone,\u201d said McHenry. \u201cThis is a perfect situation to try and do things and get better and sharpen ourselves on a really good team. It\u2019s non-conference, and it\u2019s tough to see now, but the bigger picture is the playoffs and that\u2019s what we\u2019re aiming for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Durango defense holds M-CHS to nine first-half points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[21],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cortez"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107003"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}