{"id":107005,"date":"2016-01-27T21:54:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T04:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-outlast-panthers-77-66\/"},"modified":"2016-01-27T21:54:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T04:54:17","slug":"demons-outlast-panthers-77-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-outlast-panthers-77-66\/","title":{"rendered":"Demons outlast Panthers, 77-66"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:735f6c98-acf3-4045-85ea-cb49307f5f7f --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzs8fjdH5QA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The first half of the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers\u2019 (3-10) game against the Durango Demons (9-4) lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n<p>For Cortez, the first quarter was the Engel brothers\u2019 show. Aron and Jasen Engel combined to score the Panthers\u2019 first 11 points, and each of them hit two 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>But Durango senior Orion Clay scored 12 in the opening frame to keep the Demons within four points to start the second.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams continued their red-hot shooting in the second quarter, but it was the big men who took over.<\/p>\n<p>M-CHS senior Luis Perry dropped in buckets inside \u2013 and was a near-perfect 7-of-8 from the free-throw line for 15 points \u2013 and Durango senior Scott Morse scored 11 to send Durango to the half with a 45-43 lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what [Durango] was that first half shooting percentage-wise, but it was like they couldn\u2019t miss a shot,\u201d said M-CHS head coach Mike Hall. \u201cI just told them, \u2018Keep contesting. They\u2019re going to start missing and we\u2019ll get our run.\u2019 I was very pleased with how we played in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Durango head coach Alan Batiste said that giving up 43 first-half points was an \u201ceffort thing,\u201d and his team clamped down and held the Panthers to six points in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s been our M-O for probably our last seven games,\u201d said Batiste. \u201cThe teams are coming out hot, shooting the ball well. This is our fourth straight game where we\u2019ve given up over 30 points at half. But then in the second half we\u2019ve always got something that clicks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Midway through the third, the Panthers had scored just two points on a Daniel Fernandez jumper in the lane and trailed by seven, but the home crowd was still vocal.<\/p>\n<p>But the momentum swung in Durango\u2019s favor in a hurry.<\/p>\n<p>M-CHS turned the ball over on an inbounds pass and Clay collected the loose ball and drove down court for a monster two-handed slam that sent the Durango crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n<p>Then, the Demons scored on their next two possessions for a quick 6-0 run to build an 11-point lead, ending the quarter up 60-49.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt changed momentum a lot,\u201d Hall said after the game. \u201cYou could feel it shift right towards Durango\u2019s side. I just called a timeout and told them to calm down and they\u2019ll be fine, just work through it. It\u2019s early in the game still, don\u2019t worry about it, we\u2019ll get back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers pulled within seven after consecutive 3-pointers by Aron Engel with under three minutes to play \u2013 and Jasen Engel knocked in another triple to trim the Demons\u2019 lead to 66-62 with 1:45 remaining \u2013 but the Panthers would get no closer than four, and Durango held on to win, 77-66.<\/p>\n<p>Clay led Durango with 23 points, Lucas Baken finished with 18 and Morse scored 16. Perry\u2019s 19 points led the Panthers, and the Engel brothers scored 15 points each.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019re going to hope it lights a fire for the next game,\u201d Hall said following the loss. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get a league win. We go to Montrose and Fruita, those are both hard places to play, so we\u2019ve got to go get a league win. We\u2019ve got to use this energy from the last two games that we\u2019ve played and take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durango and Cortez put up 88 first-half points in hot-shooting start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107006,"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-107005","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\/107005","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=107005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107005"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}