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Old 97 pays off for DHS

Football stars Baken and Trujillo lead the way

Anyone expecting a basketball game between Durango High School and Grand Junction on Friday left disappointed.

Instead, the Demons prevailed in largely a free-throw shooting contest 69-55 in their first Southwestern League game.

DHS (6-6, 1-0 SWL) went 30-of-46 from the line in its first home game to beat the Tigers for the first time in five years under head coach Alan Batiste.

“We’ve been practicing free throws all week because of how many we missed last week,” said DHS junior Lucas Baken, son of Dante and Jessica Baken.

There were 58 total fouls in the game, 33 for Grand Junction and 25 for the Demons.

Terrence Trujillo was the Demons’ most proficient charity stripe visitor at 7-for-10. He led the team with 18 points total.

“I’ve never never spent that much time at the line,” said Trujillo, son of Geno and Nicole Trujillo.

Baken also scored in double figures for DHS with 16 points, going 5-of-9 from the line.

The quarterback-to-receiver combo also re-enacted some of its football exploits with an outlet pass bomb from Trujillo to Baken at the end of the third quarter that resulted in free throws for Baken, who hit both of them to put DHS up 53-36 with one quarter to go.

“He said, ‘97,’ which means, ‘Go Lucas,’” Baken said. “We ran it just like in football.”

The game started out significantly closer.

DHS only led 15-11 at halftime. Then something clicked in the second quarter. The Demons imposed their will on defense and in the tempo of the game.

“We just played our game, played Durango basketball,” Batiste said. “We played our tempo and didn’t get caught up in their run game.”

The deficit proved too large for Grand Junction to whittle down.

“We couldn’t get stops, and we couldn’t get buckets,” Grand Junction head coach Isaac Madison said. “You can’t dig yourself a 16-point hole in the first half and expect to compete with good teams, especially in a league game on the road.”

The Demons quickly can build on Friday’s win. They play Grand Junction Central at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at home.

“We know they’re young and a little bit inexperienced,” Batiste said. “Every team in this league plays hard, so we’ve just got to bring our ‘A’ game and be ready to play.”

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com



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