3A North Region tournament: Chinle, MV boys to meet in a title game

CHINLE

The Monument Valley boys basketball team will get a chance to defend its 3A North Region crown.

The Mustangs will play host Chinle in a rematch of last year’s region title at 7 p.m. tonight at the Chinle Wildcat Den.

Both teams posted semifinal wins on Friday night, but that rematch was jeopardized thanks to the heroic efforts turned in by fourth seed Tuba City.

In the first semifinal, No. 3 seed Chinle got past second seed Page by a 47-36 count, while MV escaped with a 56-53 win over Tuba City.

The upset-minded Warriors were looking to earn a state tournament berth by reaching the 3A North finals as they led MV for most of the second half.

“We were told that we had to get two wins to make the playoffs,” said Tuba City guard Tayden Arizona, who finished with 14 points.

“And if we won the tournament, we would get to host a home game,” he said.

The Warriors nearly pulled off the former as it had an answer for every MV basket in the third and fourth quarters.

After trailing by as much as 11 points in the middle of the third quarter, MV chipped away at that Tuba City lead.

Senior Albrandon Byjoe played a big part in that comeback, scoring 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter.

“The last six minutes of that game was really hectic because they had the lead the whole time,” Byjoe said. “It came down to the wire, and we knew we had to play defense to pull it out.”

That is what they did, as the Warriors missed five shots in the last four minutes of the contest.

With a two-possession lead, Tuba tried to milk as much clock as possible with every possession. A couple of times, it put up a contested shot, with the 35-second shot waning down.

“We know we can play defense, but it’s something we’re still working on,” MV coach Randolph Gilmore said. “We’re trying to play lockdown defense, and we did see glimpses of that late in the game.

“When we play like that, it helps with our offense,” he added.

The Mustangs took the lead for good at 52-51 on a trey by Byjoe at the 2:01 mark. After trading scores, Byjoe gave MV a 56-53 cushion with two free throws with 16.9 seconds left.

At the other end, the Warriors couldn’t get a good look at a 3, and they opted for a two-point shot to end the game.

“I feel like we weren’t communicating, and we just fell apart,” Arizona said. “We just couldn’t pull it off.”

In addition to Arizona, the Warriors also got 18 points from senior guard Kyler Tewawina and nine from senior Pedro Martinez.

The two players combined for five treys, with Martinez making three.

With Tuba trying to play its way into the state playoffs, Gilmore expected the Warriors to play them tough.

“They tested us, so they played their hardest,” he said. “We just had to keep playing and stay mentally tough.”

Gilmore expects another tough outing with Chinle in tonight’s championship game, even though they swept the Wildcats during the regular season.

“They’re a different team, and we’re a different team,” he said. “It’s all about who has improved more from the previous games.

“We just have to worry about what we need to do,” he added.

In the first semifinals, the Wildcats put the game out of reach in the last quarter.

Chinle led 32-26 at the end of the third and used a 10-2 run in the middle of the fourth to open up a 45-32 cushion.

“We weren’t mentally engaged,” Page coach Justin Smith said. “We weren’t mentally engaged in the first half, or we would been up 10 going into the third period.”

Senior point guard Orlandon Yazzie paced Page with 11 points while Jimmy Alvarez added seven, and Nolan McCormick came off the bench and scored six.

“I thought Orlandon played a great game, and Nolan McCormick gave us some good minutes,” Smith said. “When you got kids that you’ve relied on all year not show up, that’s the results you get.”

Senior Delaney Bahe scored a team-best 14 points for Chinle, while senior wing Cashin White and junior Jostaiah Harvey both chipped in 11.

“We had to stay grounded as a team,” Harvey said. “I feel like we played a lot smarter, and we were strong on both ends of the court.”

Today’s games will start at 11:30 a.m., with Tuba City playing Page for the third-place game. The championship game between Chinle and MV is slated for 7:30 p.m.

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