Fort Thomas Apaches fall in state 1A title game

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Mar 1, 2018 | Basketball |

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Fort Thomas Apache Skylar Kindelay holds onto the ball as teammate Kobe Talgo (23) and a defender from The Gregory School leap into the air behind him Saturday in Prescott Valley, Ariz.

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz.

The Fort Thomas boys’ basketball team fell behind early and never recovered.

The Apaches trailed by nine points in the opening quarter to The Gregory School Hawks and lost a 65-46 decision in the Arizona 1A boys state title game last Saturday at the Prescott Valley Event Center.

“We tried everything but the tall guy shot the ball way up there and we did not contest his shots,” Fort Thomas coach Matthew Dona said of Hawk senior guard Addison Mort.

Mort, who used his 6-3 frame to shoot over the Fort Thomas backcourt players, finished with a game-best 24 points, which included four treys.

“If we closed him out it could have been a different game,” Dona said.

In the opening quarter, The Gregory School staked out an 18-9 lead by hitting 4-of-8 treys with Mort and junior Tomari Harris hitting two treys each.

At the start of the second, The Gregory School hit one more trey but for the remainder of the period Fort Thomas did a better job of closing them out.

On the offensive end, the Apaches went inside and looked to sophomore post Latrell Titla and senior forward Kobe Talgo. Both players combined for seven points, which included a 5-for-6 effort at the charity line. Titla’s two free throws with 1:13 left got Fort Thomas within 25-18.

Later in the quarter, Fort Thomas got a much-needed trey from sophomore guard Malachi Pablo to close that gap even further at 27-21 as both teams headed to the locker room.

“We made some adjustments,” Dona said. “We couldn’t get our shots to fall from the outside so I told the boys to take it to the middle. We drew some fouls and we got to the free-throw line.”

Unfortunately, things took a different turn for Fort Thomas as The Gregory School opened the second half on a 13-2 run with Mort scoring eight of those points. Mort hit a pair of treys and he added a transition layup to compliment that run as the Hawks built a 40-23 cushion with 4:46 left.

“We cut the lead down to six at the half but we had a hard time guarding him,” Dona said of Mort.

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