DURANGO—Revenge had double barrels for the Montezuma-Cortez varsity boys and girls basketball teams in Southwest League action Tuesday.

After each suffering a home loss to Durango in January, the Panther boy and girl cagers were out to balance the sheets as they returned the visit for a mid-week game.They balanced those accounts in two hotly contested SWL encounters Tuesday night.

The Panther girls overcame first-half foul trouble and a 15-point deficit to post a 57-51 win. Meanwhile, the Cortez boys stubbed out a late Demon rally and came away with a 56-52 victory.

Going into the final weekend of the regular season, the Cortez girls are sporting a 7-4 league record as they prepare to hit the road for a Friday encounter with league-leading Montrose. A win over the Indians will give Cortez a good solid second seed in the coming Southwest League District Basketball Tournament Feb. 25-26 at Grand Junction.

A 4-7 SWL record does not say everything about the Panther boys who seem to be coming into their own. They will be looking for a sweep over the Indians, who they handily defeated in January. The Cortez win over the Demons gave the team a degree of momentum as they trek to Montrose in what is probably the most important weekend of the season to date.

At half-time in the girls game versus Durango, Cortez trailed 38-23. If the situation looked grim for the Panthers, someone forgot to tell senior post Lindsay Waggoner as she and her team mates took the court in the second half.

"I knew we just had to go out there and play our game," Waggoner said.

Holly Tanner, who scored eight third quarter points, began the Panther rally with three straight baskets. Durango quickly called a time out, but momentum had already been reversed in favor of the Panthers. After Waggoner sank a lay-up with 18 seconds left, the gap was closed to 44-35.

An 11-point run in the final four minutes of play put the Panthers in the driver’s seat. With 3:12 left to play, Annie Mortensen found the bucket to tie the score at 49-49. The lead belonged to Cortez for keeps after Casey Bauer and Holly Tanner combined for four free throws. Leading 53-51, the Panthers went over the top with four more charity line points.

Fouls dogged the Panthers early in the game, and at half-time, three starters were already in foul trouble. The Demons cashed in, especially in the second quarter. Durango’s Aimee McCoy shot six for six while team mate Blair Murphy went four for four at the stripe.

Tanner led all scorers with 22 points, while Jamie Pratt was the Demon’s leading scorer with 16.

After taking a 17-7 first quarter-lead, the Panther boys found themselves in a struggle for the rest of the game as Durango rallied again and again. But the Demons were not able to score the easy lay-ups when they counted the most.

Durango went on a tear in the second quarter with a long scoring string and took a 21-17 lead. After more than five minutes without a score, Josh Cornett was good for a lay-up that jump started the Panthers. Adam Williams connected for his third three point goal of the evening, and Cortez regained a 27-26 lead and was on top 30-29 at intermission.

Eric White began the second half with a three-pointer for the Panthers and they had a nine point lead after he was good for a couple of free throws. But a Durango mini-rally closed the gap again, and Cortez’ lead was cut to 44-42 at the quarter’s end.

With 2:13 to play, Williams hit a trey to give the Panthers a five point lead. As Durango fought back, it lost several scoring opportunities with turnovers under the basket. In the final seconds, the Panther lead was back to two points, but Cortez free throws kept the game just out of reach.