District titles, state at stake in weekend games

WINDOW ROCK

The New Mexico Activities Association is set to release the state playoff brackets for girls’ and boys’ basketball on Sunday.

Before that announcement is made, a few area schools will compete in district tournament championship games.

Four of those games will be played today at various schools and on Saturday there are eight teams vying for a district championship. (The Farmington girls are one win away of reaching the District 2-5A title game as the Scorps will battle Sandia today at 5:30 p.m. today with the winner advancing into the finals to play La Cueva on Saturday.)

In District 1-3A, the top-seeded Navajo Prep boys will face No. 2 Crownpoint for the third time this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at Shiprock High.

“We’re 1-1 against each other and both games have been very good,” Navajo Prep coach Matt Melvin said. “We’re excited to play them. We were hoping that Crownpoint would work their way back into the tournament and they took care of business.”

And although they got to the finals, Crownpoint had to hold off upset-minded Tohatchi in Wednesday night’s semifinals by a 60-51 count.

“We survived a mental test,” said Eagles coach Thale Goodluck. “Tohatchi stepped up and I feel like that this was a wake-up call for us.”

Goodluck said he’s anticipated another close matchup with ’Prep in tonight’s championship game.

“’Prep is a good team and we’re ready for the challenge,” he said. “It’s going to be an exciting game.”

At nearby Kirtland Central, the Lady Broncos will host Gallup in the District 1-4A championship, pitting the two best teams in the district with KC winning the top seed following Monday’s 46-39 win. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight.

“You know, they’re a very tough team,” KC coach Devon Manning said of the Bengals. “They present a lot of problems for us. They got a lot of size that we don’t have and they’re very well coached.”

Manning said playing Gallup twice within three games this week is not ideal but they’re happy to play the Bengals for the fourth time this season.

“It is what it is and, you know, we’re ready to play,” he said. “It’s going to be a fun game.”

Gallup coach Todd McBroom believes that they could face KC for a fifth time this season, possibly in the 4A state title game.

“We’re excited to play them again,” McBroom said. “In my personal opinion, us and Kirtland are the two best teams in the state, so we’re excited to compete with one of the best teams in the state.”

At Rehoboth Christian, the Lady Lynx will host the district championship game as the No. 1 seed in District 1-2A.

The Lynx will take on No. 2 Laguna-Acoma, a team they beat earlier this week for the district’s top seed.

The game of Friday will be fourth meeting between the two schools.

“We got a good feel of what they like to do defensively and offensively,” Rehoboth coach Adrian Pete said of the Lady Hawks. “We’re going to try to adjust to that and counter what they did last time.”

Pete said his club has to contend with LA’s size, while adding that the Lady Hawks feature a few players around 6 feet.

In the District 1-1A girls tournament, top-seed To’hajiilee plays host to Pine Hill at 6 p.m. tonight.

On Saturday, the District 1-3A girls will feature No. 1 Tohatchi and No. 3 Crownpoint in the title game.

On Thursday, Crownpoint edged No. 2 seed Navajo Prep 24-23 at Shiprock High.

The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. on the Cougars home court, but the venue and time may be switched to Gallup High at 4 p.m. on Saturday as the championship game is expected to draw a large crowd.

“Because of capacity reasons they want to move it,” Tohatchi coach Tanisha Bitsoi said.

As of Friday morning, the game was still scheduled for Tohatchi at 6 p.m.

Bitsoi said it’s been at least three years since her team has won the district’s regular season.

“We have a great group of young ladies that worked hard all season for that,” Bitsoi said, while adding that she is not a fan of moving the district title game.

“Our girls are anxious to play the championship game,” she said, “We’re going to continue to play good defense, attack the basket and take advantage of our opportunities.”

In the District 1-4A title game, the Gallup Bengals will host crosstown rival Miyamura in a 1-2 matchup.

Gallup coach Joshua Dunlap said he’s looking forward to playing the Patriots as the Bengals advanced into the title game with a 78-56 win over No. 4 Kirtland Central on Thursday.

“We withstood a hard third quarter comeback to gain the advantage at the end,” Dunlap said in a text message.

In that contest, Gallup senior Joaquin Ortega had his 100th career start while surpassing the 1,200-point plateau.

Miyamura advanced with a 58-55 win over Bloomfield in the other semifinals to make Saturday’s 6 p.m. championship game.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Dunlap said of the Patriots.

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, the top-seeded Rehoboth boys will host No. 2 Dulce for the District 1-2A championship.

The Lynx defeated Dulce 61-58 in their first meeting but, in the rematch, Rehoboth overpowered the Hawks 68-36.

“In the first game Dulce hit some shots and in the second game they didn’t hit as many shots,” Rehoboth coach Kevin Zwiers said. “I would hope that our defense had something to do with their poor shooting the second time out.”

Zwiers said it’s going to be difficult to beat a team a third time, but he feels they’re ready.

“Dulce is a tough team, and we have to be ready on Saturday,” he said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to play for the championship.”

---