3A North, 1A North regional brackets released

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK – The pairings for the 3A North and 1A North regional boys and girls basketball tournaments were released on Sunday following Saturday’s action.

The Dishchii’bikoh Wildcats earned the top seeds for the boys and girls 1A North tournament, which starts on Thursday night with the higher seeded teams hosting. The semifinals and championship game will take place on Saturday at Rock Point High School. The girls championship game is scheduled for 5 p.m. and the boys at 6:30 p.m.

In the 3A North, the Tuba City girls and Chinle boys finished atop the six-team regional standings. The second-ranked Lady Warriors enter the regional tournament on a 14-game winning streak as Tuba owns a 22-3 overall record, which includes a 9-1 mark in 3A North play.

“We have a target on our back and that’s what I’ve been saying since we started a little winning streak, since we started getting on top and since the rankings came out,” Tuba City coach Pete Butler said. “I told the girls (the other teams) are after you. We’re marked, and they’re going to come after us and so they’re going to play harder and harder.”

Tuba will have a first-round bye and they will host a semifinal game on Thursday night at 4 p.m. between the winner between No. 4 Monument Valley (11-13, 4-6) and No. 5 Chinle (15-13, 3-7). The MV/Chinle game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday night in Kayenta.

In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 3 Page (13-12, 6-4) is hosting No. 6 Ganado (9-14, 2-8) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday and the survivor will face No. 2 seed and fourth-ranked Window Rock (17-7, 6-4) at 4 p.m. on Friday night.

The girls championship game is slated for 4 p.m. at the Wildcat Den at Chinle High School.

First round action for the 3A boys region tournament has No. 3 Monument Valley (9-11, 6-4) hosting No. 6 Ganado (6-19, 1-9) at 4 p.m. on Tuesday while No. 4 Page (8-14, 5-5) is entertaining No. 5 Window Rock (8-13, 2-8) at 4 p.m.

The Page/Window Rock survivor plays at No. 1 seed and seventh-ranked Chinle (21-4, 10-0) at 7 p.m. on Thursday night while No. 2 seed Tuba City (12-12, 6-4) will host the MV/Ganado winner at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The championship game is slated for 2 p.m. at the Wildcat Den.

“I’ve always said the 3A North is scary league, and we’re not taking any team lightly,” Chinle coach CJ Woods said. “We know that teams can come out and play. They can score fast, they can play hard, and they’re well coached.

“We’ve got to come ready for every game because any team can knock another team off,” he added.

Woods acknowledged the potential advantage of hosting the semifinal and possibly the championship game, but he also praised the atmosphere at the Wildcat Den.

“Maybe it is and maybe it’s not,” Woods said when asked about home court advantage. “The cool thing is I think the Wildcat Den provides an atmosphere for a region tournament. Whoever gets into the championship game, the fans are gonna come. You’re gonna get this loud environment and it’ll be fun.”

1A North

The pairings for the 1A girls tournament pits No. 5 St. Michael (3-18, 2-4) at No. 4 Red Mesa (10-15, 4-3) while No. 3 Rock Point (11-11, 4-2) entertains No. 6 Rough Rock (3-13, 1-6) with all the games scheduled for Thursday night at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, the regional tournament will move to Rock Point High School with No. 2 El Capitan (10-4, 5-1) playing the Rock Point/Rough Rock survivor at 8 a.m. At 11 a.m., the Red Mesa/St. Michael winner takes on top-seeded Dishchii’bikoh (14-7, 6-0) at 11 a.m. with the title game scheduled for 5 p.m.

“There’s nobody standing in our way for the regional tournament,” longtime Rock Point coach Andrew Reed said. “But if we don’t play our game, they’re going to take that away from us.”

The boys 1A tournament features No. 4 El Capitan (11-13, 5-3) hosting No. 5 Red Mesa (15-11, 4-4) while No. 3 St. Michael (11-13, 6-2) entertaining No. 6 BASIS Flagstaff (12-10, 3-4) on Thursday night at 6 p.m.

The St. Michael/BASIS Flagstaff winner is scheduled to play No. 2 Rock Point (14-7, 7-1) at 9:30 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., top-seeded Dishchii’bikoh (14-7, 7-1) will take on the El Capitan/Red Mesa winner at 12:30 p.m. The boys championship game is slated for 6:30 p.m.

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