JUDA — As the pendulum swung in Juda’s favor, Durand just needed to ride out the storm. For the Panthers, the momentum changed course at the worst possible time.
The end result was Juda losing a nonconference home game to the Bulldogs 63-47 Jan. 6.
“It’s hard — you have to keep that energy up for the entire game,” Panthers coach Aaron Duecker said.
Durand used its size inside in the first half to go up 9-2 in the first six minutes of the game, all the way to an eventual 19-6 advantage. The first 17 of the Bulldogs’ points came from junior Aidan Snider and sophomore Alex Montalvan.
“They wanted to get it into the post a lot. They are strong, just like the rest of the teams in our conference,” Duecker said. “We just needed to do a better job of denying post entry. There’s nothing really to plan for other than we need to execute a little better.”
Juda began to whittle away at the deficit in the final seven minutes before halftime. Avery Sheaffer put in a bucket in the paint and then hit a big 3-pointer, while Trent Anderson added a 3 and Payton Johnson scored off a rebound. That short burst of offense brought the Panthers to within seven points at 23-16 with 1:46 left in the first half.
“It doesn’t stop at the seniors — they always bring it, including Payton, and Justice (Falbo) does it on the practice squad for us as well. But Avery, Aaron (Makos), Royce (Brauer) — they bring that intensity every single day. We just have to put it into a full game now,” Duecker said.
After a pair of Montalvan free throws, Gavin Kammerer took a steal coast to coast with just 26 seconds left. A half-court heave by Anderson was off the mark, but Durand’s Brett Klein was whistled for a foul. Anderson would hit two of three free throws to bring Juda to within just five points at halftime, 25-20.
After closing the first half on a 14-7 run, Juda kept the momentum alive to open the second half. Johnson, Anderson and Aaron Makos all made baskets in the first four minutes of play, and then Kammerer buried a 3 that brought the score to within a point at 30-29. Moments later, after a pair of Makos free throws, Kammerer connected on another triple — this time giving his squad a 34-32 lead and putting Durand on its heels.
The Bulldogs, backed into a corner, fought back viciously and rung off a 19-0 run over the next six minutes to bury the Panthers. Leading the way was sophomore Trenton Taylor, who hit three 3s and scored 15 points during the stretch.
“Sometimes you have to ride it out, sometimes you have to lean into it,” Duecker said of Durand’s long run. “By design we wanted to keep them out of the paint, because that’s where they got most of their points early when they were missing their 3-pointers. Sometimes they just go in. We had a lot of trouble with rotation. We tended to have guys underneath that should have been helping the guys up top.”
Juda tried again to rally, making another 10-2 run in just a two-minute stretch to make it 53-44, but that was as close as it would get the rest of the way.
Anderson led Juda with 14 points, while Kammerer had 13 — 11 of which came in the second half. Makos and Shaeffer each added seven points.
Montalvan led Durand with 22 points, followed by Taylor’s 17 and Snider’s 12.
“Our defense was what was lacking today. We’ve been doing a good job of holding teams to their scores of the season, and we’re not going to beat anybody if they are scoring 60, 70 points in a game,” Duecker said.
