Championship Saturday: Rehoboth, Tohatchi, Gallup boys capture district crowns

GALLUP

Saturday marked the final day for district championship games in New Mexico.

The New Mexico Activities Association is set to release the state brackets for all five classifications on Sunday afternoon. Per the NMAA, the regular season and district tournament winners will receive automatic bids to the playoffs. Each bracket has 16 teams, and the rest of the field will be filled with at-large teams.

Rehoboth Christian boys

In 2A, the top-seeded Rehoboth Christian boys basketball team rode out a 20-1 advantage to win the District 1-2A crown over third-seeded Hózhó Academy by a 60-44 count.

“We’ve been in this situation before and this was Hózhó’s first time (playing in a district title game) and I don’t know if there were nerves or whatever, but we had a great start,” longtime Rehoboth coach Kevin Zwiers said. “I mean, we played really solid defense, and we were able to put the ball in the basket and we were attacking. The key was playing defense and grabbing some rebounds.”

Rehoboth was led by senior guard Trajen West, who was named the district’s player of the year. West finished with 22 points while teammates Thijs Meester and Kodah Chapman added 13 and 12, respectively.

“Our coaches emphasize that our defense runs our offense,” West said. “I think that showed where we held them to one point, and we scored 18 in the first, so we emphasize that our defense leads to our offense.”

Junior guard Jonah Jones agreed while adding that their defense dictated the tempo of the game.

“It wasn’t really offensive base, it was more of what we were doing on the defensive end,” Jones said. “We wouldn’t have gotten those runouts if it weren’t for our defense. That intensity brought our energy up and it brought our team together.”

The Lynx enters the state playoffs with a 21-6 record and they’re hoping to get one of the top eight seeds to host a first-round game.

“The first thing you need to understand is that the seeding is a giant math problem, so where we want to be versus where we end up is two totally different things,” Zwiers said. “Literally, it’s like they can plug it into a computer, and it spits out where you’re going to be. But when I look it, we should be in that seven, eight and nine range is probably where we fall.”

The Wolves (19-10) are also looking to make the playoffs as an at-large bid under first-year head coach Chad Meekhof.

“It’s looking like we’re one of the top 16 teams,” Meekhof said. “I know we’re better than two teams that are ranked ahead of us, but we’re looking at 13, 14, 15 or 16 seed, so we’re gonna go in there with nothing to lose.”

In Saturday’s district championship game, the Wolves didn’t get their first basket until the 6:29 mark of the second quarter from junior guard Abe Azua, who finished with a dozen points.

“That deficit hurt us, and all the credit goes to Rehoboth,” Meekhof said. “They played great defense and I want to give credit where its due, but I think we had some nerves. After Rehoboth scored three, four buckets it was like we were not going to score, and our mindset continued that way.”

Hózhó was led by freshman point guard Hudson Cash as he finished with 17 points.

Tohatchi boys

After coming up short to top-seeded Navajo Prep by four and five points, respectively, during the regular season the Tohatchi boys exact some revenge in the District 1-3A title game.

After trailing by two points in the opening quarter, Tohatchi (23-6) gradually pulled away en route to a 53-38 win.

The Cougars held Navajo Prep (23-4) to two points in the second stanza and five markers in the third while scoring 30 points in those two quarters for a commanding 41-20 cushion entering the fourth.

“They wanted to play really aggressive man defense in that second, third quarter,” Tohatchi coach Kendall Livingston said of his club. “And we were patient on the offensive end. I kept telling them that if the first play wasn’t there, take it back out and run the second play.”

The Cougars were paced by brothers Myles and Myka Candeleria, as the combined for 32 points headed by Myles’ game-high 20 points.

“Honestly, I want to thank my players, we all put in the work,” Myles said. “We slowed the game down, and it was all mental from there.”

Myka said the tempo of the game worked in their favor as the Cougars looked for the best available shot by breaking down Navajo Prep’s defense, which led to open looks.

“We had to be patient to run our offense,” said Myka, who finished with a dozen points. “Every game, we’ve played, we’ve been running the clock down even when we’re up by 10 or 20 points. We’re still slowing it down.”

Navajo Prep was paced by senior Dylan Lansing, who finished with a team-best nine points. The Eagles also received seven from sophomore Iosefo Mauga and six from Jeremiah Belin.

Both teams are headed to playoffs, and they will be hosting a first-round game. It’s anybody’s guess on where they’ll be seeded as seven of the top eight teams have 22-plus wins.

“It would be great if this win bumps us up,” Livingston said. “We’ll still host, but I rather be a six or seven (seed).”

Gallup boys

In front of a capacity crowd, the top-seeded Gallup boys saw an 18-point fourth-quarter lead get dwindled down to four points against No. 3 Shiprock at Gallup High School.

The Bengals (21-7) regrouped and finished out the District 1-4A championship game on a 5-0 run to secure an entertaining 62-53 win.

“The way Shiprock was playing, you know, upsetting (No. 2) Bloomfield, they came in with a lot of momentum,” Gallup coach Ryan Becenti said. “They’re a tough team and coach (Larenson) Henderson does a good job with his boys. They fought hard all game long.

“You know, we got to what we thought was a comfortable lead, but they just wouldn’t go away,” he added. “They kept battling back.”

By winning the regular season and the district tournament titles, the Bengals are hoping to secure a home playoff game.

“We want a home game, and we’re hoping to get a seven or eight seed,” Gallup senior point guard Joshua Keeto, who earned the district POY award. “Whatever seed we get, we’ll be ready for it.”

Gallup senior post Kelton Edison said they are striving to play inside the famed Pit, home of the New Mexico Lobos as the 4A state quarterfinals will be played there.

“We haven’t played in the Pit in a while,” Edison said. “Our team goal is to try and take the whole thing because anything can happen in the Pit.”

If the Bengals do host, Edison said that’s going to be advantage, especially with the crowds they draw.

“That’s pretty huge because that sixth man is real with the crowd that we have,” he said. “The crowd can make a huge difference in the game, but at the same time it comes down to how we play.”

Shiprock, which dropped to 13-16 overall, chipped away at Gallup’s 18-point lead in the fourth. The Chieftains hit a barrage of 3s in a three-minute span that put pressure on the Bengals.

Junior Blake Begaye jumpstarted a 15-3 Shiprock run with a pair of 3s. Following a Gallup basket from junior Jeremias Cleveland, the Chieftains closed the gap to 57-47 on a trey by senior Iilyas Marquez with 3:27 to go.

The Chieftains then received a rare four-point play from junior Joaquin Nez, who was fouled while connecting with a 3-pointer from the baseline near their sideline.

After a Gallup turnover, Nez added a two-point shot that got the Chieftains within 57-53 with 2:35 left. That was a close as Shiprock would get as the Bengals scored the last five points of the contest.

“The tempo from the start of the game was set,” Shiprock coach Larenson Henderson said. “We didn’t execute and we kind of went off track on what we wanted to do. I think right there, it set the tempo to where we didn’t move the ball like we should have, and we didn’t share it.

“Defensive wise, we did make some adjustments, but we didn’t follow through with it,” he added. “We missed a lot of good shots at the beginning of the game, and we played like we played.”

With the loss, Larenson said there is slim chance that his team could make the playoffs.

“There are a couple of teams ahead of us have worse records than what we have,” Henderson said of Roswell Goddard (12-15), St. Pius X (12-15) and Grants (11-16). “I hope the (seeding committee) looks at record and our schedule. We had a challenging schedule and I think we deserve to get in.

“But again, I’m not doing the selection and I’m not sure how they’ll do their selection,” he added.

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