But during Tuesday night’s contest between the Durango Demons (13-4) and Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panthers (7-10), it swung in favor of Durango from the tip and got stuck.
Durango junior Katrina Chandler knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 11 points in the first quarter and the Demons led 20-1 after the opening eight minutes.
“We knew it was going to be tough, we just didn’t expect to come out flat like this,” said M-CHS head coach John McHenry. “We just weren’t willing to get back on defense in time and it was like 20-1 – and it was all just transition points.”
M-CHS Kelcie Ralstin knocked down a triple in the second quarter for the Lady Panthers’ lone first-half field goal, and they entered the half trailing 34-8.
The rest of the game was just a formality.
“Don’t listen to the crowd, don’t listen to the chants they’re saying and don’t look at the score,” McHenry said he told his team at halftime. “You gotta look at this as practice. This is the best transition team that we’ve run into – and Monte Vista is going to do it and Alamosa is going to do it in the playoffs – so get after it and try to beat this one.”
Durango shot 50 percent from the field in the contest, and while McHenry wasn’t happy with his team’s poor shooting, they often turned the ball over before they could even attempt a shot.
The Lady Panthers sleptwalked through the third quarter, throwing lazy, sloppy passes that were easily picked off by the Demons,
And as they did for most of the game, the Demons simply outran them down the floor for easy fastbreak scores.
Abri Conklin scored on a driving right-handed layup and Aeisha Capitan hit a 3-pointer for the visiting Panthers’ only points of the third quarter. And then a 3-pointer by Ralstin and free throws by Gabby Wolf made up the Lady Panthers’ fourth-quarter scoring.
Durango closed the game on an 11-0 run that included two 3-pointers by Shilo Gillen, and the Demons would go on to win, 65-18.
