{"id":13830,"date":"2026-01-23T11:52:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fends-off-m-chs-with-strong-perimeter-shooting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:41:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:41:02","slug":"durango-fends-off-m-chs-with-strong-perimeter-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fends-off-m-chs-with-strong-perimeter-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango fends off M-CHS with strong perimeter shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango
Durango senior Aysia Matthews and Montezuma\u2011Cortez junior Abigale Baker chase a loose ball during Thursday\u2019s game in The Jungle.Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 Durango head coach Lauren Moran didn\u2019t plan to rely on the three\u2011ball, but after the Demons hit seven triples in the first half of their 45\u201133 win over Montezuma\u2011Cortez, she wasn\u2019t about to complain.<\/p>\n

Durango (8\u20116, 1\u20111 6A\/5A SWL) took control early in the second quarter with its perimeter shooting, putting the Panthers in chase mode the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve emphasized that we don\u2019t want to rely too much on the three \u2013 we want to make sure we\u2019re getting the ball inside,\u201d said Moran, before pausing and adding, \u201cbut if the shots are falling, we\u2019re going to go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma\u2011Cortez
Montezuma\u2011Cortez senior Sariah Jackson drives to the basket against Durango junior Kaleigh Roan on Thursday night in The Jungle.Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DHS senior Claire Goodwin accounted for four of the seven first\u2011half three\u2011pointers, including one at the horn to end the first quarter, before adding a fifth deep bucket in the second half on her way to a game\u2011high 20 points.<\/p>\n

After the teams traded momentum in the early minutes, Durango junior Jaelyn Alston buried three triples of her own in the opening 16 minutes as Durango expanded its four\u2011point first\u2011quarter advantage to a 28\u201117 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to limit their runs, and start to expand our own,\u201d said Moran of the decisive stretch.<\/p>\n

More aggression at the rim in the second half yielded free throws for the visitors, which helped stabilize the lead after M\u2011CHS (4\u20117, 0\u20112 4A\/3A IML) posed its biggest comeback threat of the night. Buckets from Panthers freshman Raya Hall, sophomore Kyndall Schmitt and senior Sariah Jackson produced a 7\u20110 run to begin the fourth quarter as M\u2011CHS closed to within 36\u201130. Durango cashed in on free throws from senior Ryne Neiman and junior Gracie Fitzpatrick to stem the tide and ensure M\u2011CHS wouldn\u2019t get any closer.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s 14 points paced the Panthers, while Schmitt added six in the defeat. Alston finished with 13 points, while DHS senior Aysia Matthews poured in six points \u2013 all in the first half \u2013 while adding multiple blocked shots and a rebounding presence that limited M\u2011CHS to one shot per offensive trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cAysia always plays so hard, even if she doesn\u2019t score a lot \u2013 the combination of her length and her quickness makes it hard to score against her,\u201d lauded Moran of her senior post.<\/p>\n

For the Demons, a road win over M\u2011CHS \u2013 their 10th straight in the series \u2013 helped refocus the group after an up\u2011and\u2011down trip to the Grand Valley, where they beat GJ Central before falling to Palisade. A home date with 5A No. 4 Montrose on Saturday, followed by games at Fruita\u2011Monument and Grand Junction next weekend, will give DHS plenty of chances to strengthen its postseason r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win helps show our girls that they can compete with any team in our league,\u201d said Moran. \u201cM\u2011CHS is a really good team, and they gave Montrose everything they could handle on Tuesday in the Red Hawks\u2019 45\u201134 win in Cortez \u2013 so this was really a nice win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for M\u2011CHS, Thursday marked their fourth straight game against high\u2011quality opponents \u2013 and although the Panthers dropped all four, they continued to build confidence in a disciplined defense they believe can keep them competitive with anyone in the region. Head coach M.E. Haley\u2019s team goes to Pagosa Springs on Saturday and returns to The Jungle on Tuesday to face Ignacio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demons\u2019 Goodwin, Alston catch fire in road victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830","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=13830"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20683,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions\/20683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13830"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}