{"id":48535,"date":"2021-02-18T17:37:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T00:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-ride-dominant-first-half-to-convincing-win-over-m-chs\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:43:27","slug":"demons-ride-dominant-first-half-to-convincing-win-over-m-chs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-ride-dominant-first-half-to-convincing-win-over-m-chs\/","title":{"rendered":"Demons ride dominant first half to convincing win over M-CHS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango senior Walter Stauffer reaches for a rebound during the first half of his team\u2019s 63-44 win over Montezuma-Cortez High School on Wednesday.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Although an eerily quiet gym with less than 50 fans in attendance made a contest Wednesday between the Durango and M-CHS boys basketball teams sound more like an afternoon practice than one of Colorado\u2019s most heated rivalries, players on both sides brought energy throughout the night.<\/p>\n

In the end, Durango\u2019s talent proved too much for a young Panthers squad to overcome as the Demons built a 20-point halftime lead before coasting throughout much of the second half to a 63-44 victory.<\/p>\n

Senior Walter Stauffer led the way offensively for Durango with 14 points, while senior teammate Sam Johnson scored 13. Joining the Demons senior duo in double figures were junior Anthony Flint with 13 points and sophomore Dylan Bettin with 11.<\/p>\n

M-CHS was paced by sophomore Sawyer Smith, who scored 15 points, and junior J.T. Carver, who chipped in 11. Sophomore Austin Wood contributed five points to the Panthers\u2019 cause.<\/p>\n

Among the several factors that contributed to Durango\u2019s big win was the team\u2019s ability to create turnovers during a frenetic first half that saw M-CHS struggle to move the ball across half court against the Demons\u2019 full-court press.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango junior Anthony Flint floats through the air before scoring a nifty reverse layup during Wednesday night&#x2019;s game between the Demons and the Panthers.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Also contributing to the Panthers\u2019 difficulties was a marked Durango size advantage that became evident when Stauffer posted up on the low block at will and Flint attacked the basket with little fear of rejection from M-CHS\u2019 undersized guards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said that we had to dominate the paint and win all the paint points,\u201d Demons head coach Alan Batiste said. \u201cWe also turned them up a little bit and forced some turnovers. We were able to execute off the turnovers, and that\u2019s always a plus sign. We haven\u2019t had that opportunity this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a big first half allowed the Demons pull ahead 19-7 at the end of the opening quarter and extend its lead to 33-13 by halftime, all was not rosy for the Demons during a second half that saw the Panthers outscore Durango by a point.<\/p>\n

Keying M-CHS\u2019 second-half turnaround was Smith, who pulled down several rebounds and attacked the rim with abandon on his way to 13 second-half points that saved his team from a complete blowout.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Smith) is like the energizer bunny \u2013 he never stops,\u201d M-CHS head coach Michael Hall said. \u201cI like to see his aggressiveness. He\u2019s a young kid, and he\u2019s learning every day. I love to see him attacking the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with Smith\u2019s effort, however, the Panthers found themselves unable to carve into their big deficit as Flint, Johnson and Bettin attacked the basket and Stauffer controlled the paint and pulled down numerous rebounds.<\/p>\n

A 5-0 lead by M-CHS highlighted by transition hoops by Carver and Smith made the score 33-18 before Durango responded with a layup by Johnson with 4:10 left in the third quarter and a soft dunk by Flint moments later.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez sophomore Austin Wood breaks free for a transition layup during his team&#x2019;s 19-point loss to Durango High School on Wednesday.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ahead 43-24 entering the game\u2019s final eight minutes, Durango consistently pounded the ball inside to Stauffer, and senior responded by scoring six points in the quarter that included a nifty jump shot in the paint off a baseline out-of-bounds play that put his team ahead 51-29.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Stauffer) has been struggling a bit with his confidence, but he had an excellent game and got his confidence back up,\u201d Batiste said. \u201cHim touching the ball down there and being able to score was a big plus for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the contest was highlighted by energized play from both sides, the relatively quiet M-CHS gymnasium felt somewhat strange to both Batiste and Hall, who have stood on opposite ends of the sideline during numerous matchups between their rival teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely helps that there\u2019s no crowd,\u201d Batiste said with a laugh. \u201cThem coming to our house with no crowd and us coming here with no crowd, it wasn\u2019t the full Durango-Cortez rivalry, but when we get between the lines, it\u2019s still a rivalry for the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a 4-3 overall record and 1-1 in the Southwest League, Durango will look ahead to difficult home matchups against Montrose on Friday and Grand Junction Central on Saturday.<\/p>\n

M-CHS will return to its practice court for one day before putting its 1-7 overall record and 0-3 record in the Intermountain League on the line against Alamosa on Friday and Centauri on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a young team,\u201d Batiste said of the Panthers. \u201cIt\u2019s a team full of sophomores, and they play hard. They are right around the corner; we\u2019ve got our hands full when we see them next year, and we\u2019re looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

players score in double figures for the Demons; Smith leads Panthers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,592,28,36,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-durango-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48535","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=48535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87401,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48535\/revisions\/87401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48535"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}