On Friday night, the Durango boys basketball team beat Palisade 61-47 and showed all its players can do two things: Play defense and hit 3-pointers.
The Demons used their length and versatility to disrupt the Palisade offense all night. Durango needed its defense in the first half with scoring hard to come by. Then, in the second half, the Demons hit seven 3-pointers to pull away for a comfortable league win.
“We've always said we have to have the first run going in the third quarter,” Durango head coach Alan Batiste said. “We responded on that level so it was beautiful. The way we responded was defense. Defense travels and offense doesn't. But defense creates offense and that's what we did. The boys did excellent responding with that.”
Durango improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League with the win. Four players made 10 3-pointers for Durango. The Demons have made 23 3-pointers in their last two games.
Senior guard Noah Miles led Durango with 20 points and hit four 3-pointers. Miles had 16 second-half points and has thrived in his sixth man role in recent weeks. Senior forward Marcus Cullum had 13 points and sophomore guard King Kerlin had 11 for the Demons.
“He's been excellent and he’s the sixth man of the year right now,” Batiste said about Miles. “I'm proud of him accepting the role and that role can change … so we're winning with him like that and we're playing well when he does do it. He gets to feel out the game. People are tired in the first four minutes and his legs are fresh, so he gets to come in as a shooter and provide instant offense.”
Palisade dropped to 6-7 overall and 0-2 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League with the loss. Junior Hunter Howard led the Bulldogs with 15 points.
Durango started the first quarter strong and caused multiple turnovers. Palisade settled in and the Demons led 12-10 after a layup by freshman guard Taj Batiste to end the quarter.
Palisade took its first lead of the second quarter with a 3-pointer with 5:20 left in the second to put DHS up 15-14. The Bulldogs had a size advantage but Durango used its length to block shots from outside and inside the paint. Senior forward Otto Aaland had multiple blocks inside. After his second block, he ran down the court and hit a 3-pointer from the corner to put Durango up 17-15 and cement his 3-and-D archetype.
The Bulldogs started scoring thanks to its post touches. Palisade pounded the paint and either found cutters for layups or shooters. A Bulldogs corner 3-pointer at the buzzer tied the game at 21 at halftime.
Cullum scored Durango’s first four points of the third quarter to put the Demons up 25-21. But Palisade found some success with some good passing to retake the lead. The Bulldogs benefited from some questionable calls against Aaland and some other Durango bigs on block attempts.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from senior forward Ethan White and Miles gave the Demons a 33-26 lead with 3:26 left in the third. Miles used his length for a steal and instead of going to the basket, he took the modern approach and pulled up in transition for a wing 3-pointer.
Durango went into a 2-3 zone in the third quarter and created some difficulty for the Bulldogs’ offense. The Demons’ length works really well in a zone as they can close passing lanes that appear open.
“That was crucial,” Batiste said about the 2-3 zone. “We did it perfect timing. We kept it in our bag a little long; I wanted to use it in the first quarter and I thought, ‘You know what we're doing, just fine. They're not really separating. It’s still a tie game. We're up three; we're up four.’ It was perfect timing for that 2-3 and they had a little problem with our length. When we stayed solid, it was hard to beat us.”
On the offensive end, Durango pulled away with the 3-point shot. Miles hit another and Taj Batiste was fouled on an attempt. His two makes from the charity stripe put Durango up 40-29 with 1:32 left. The Demons took that lead into the fourth quarter.
Aaland hit another corner 3-pointer to start the fourth for the Demons, followed by a Kerlin triple. Miles got in on the triple party to put Durango up 49-32 with six minutes left.
When Miles is feeling it from deep, there’s not much defenses can do. He has the height at 6-foot-4 inches and high release to shoot over any guard on the perimeter with ease.
Palisade made a run with some 3-pointers off turnovers to cut Durango’s lead to 54-47 with two minutes left. Batiste said the Demons haven’t been pressed much this season and some younger players made some mental errors to allow Palisade to create turnovers.
Miles finished inside to stop the bleeding and Palisade had to start fouling with about 90 seconds left.
Durango plays at home against Grand Junction Central at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com