Another Durango girls basketball game, another dominant defensive performance by the Demons. Durango suffocated Grand Junction Central with its pressure for all 32 minutes and the Demons won 48-18 at home on Saturday afternoon.
Grand Junction Central struggled to get any rhythm on the offensive end. The Warriors struggled to get separation from their defenders and when they did, they didn’t have the touch to finish inside.
On the other end, Durango pulled away with seven 3-pointers and some quality offense inside the 3-point arc.
“We came out a little flat at the beginning,” Durango head coach Lauren Moran said. “We weren’t executing the way we wanted to, but we got better throughout the game, which is really positive. We got really good minutes from everybody; we started subbing much earlier than we normally do. Everybody that came in, there was never a drop-off and if anything, there was an increase in our overall play.”
Durango improved to 13-2 overall and 2-0 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League with the win. It was Durango’s 12th consecutive win of the season.
Senior guard Tyler Trujillo led Durango with 13 points and three 3-pointers. Junior guard Claire Goodwin had 11 points and three 3-pointers for Durango.
GJC fell to 3-9 overall and 0-2 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League with the loss. Senior Emma Diaz led the Warriors with five points.
Whistles were blown frequently to open the game. Durango and Grand Junction Central were turning the ball over and fouling each other for a sloppy first few minutes of play.
Durango took a lot of relatively open jump shots on offense that weren’t falling and GJC led 4-2 with four minutes left Moran put in four bench players to change up her team’s look.
“There were certain things we wanted to do offensively and we were going to keep subbing until we found the people that would respond to that instruction,” Moran said.
The Demons ended the first quarter strong by staying with the outside shots on offense and making some. Goodwin hit three 3-pointers to put Durango up 13-4 after the first quarter.
GJC continued to struggle with its touch to start the second quarter. The Warriors penetrated and got looks off from the paint but missed badly on most of them.
Durango extended its lead with a nice mid-range jumper by Trujillo. GJC snapped a seven-minute scoring drought with some free throws and scored again off a turnover to cut Durango’s lead to 17-8 with 3:30 left in the half.
The Demons were very active in the passing lanes to end the half as Durango finished the second quarter on a 10-0 run to lead 27-8 at half. GJC lobbed some poor passes without a lot of velocity that were easy to pick off.
“It was defense,” Moran said about the run. “We turned them over a lot with our press and even our half-court trap. Then we got out on the break for some easy layups.”
Senior forward Ellie White got the crowd on its feet with an old-school 3-point play inside to start the third quarter. GJC continued to struggle to finish and didn’t score its first basket until there were three minutes left in the third. Durango could’ve increased its lead even more but the Demons missed some easy layups.
Trujillo hit two corner 3-pointers late in the third quarter to put Durango up 40-12.
Durango stretched its lead to 32 in the fourth as every player got into the game for the Demons.
The Demons hit the road next week to play at Montrose on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in a huge league game. The Red Hawks are 2-0 in the league and 13-1 overall.
Moran is happy to have a lot of practice time early in the week. The Demons have had a lot of games in the middle of the week, restricting their practice time. She said Durango will focus on its defense and expects a low-scoring game against Montrose.
bkelly@durangoherald.com