Mustangs to play Coolidge for Final Four berth

KAYENTA

The Mustangs have a dance to make today.

After defeating the Benjamin Franklin Chargers at home on Saturday night, 61-47, Monument Valley has earned a spot in Elite Eight round.

MV plays the Coolidge Bears at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona, at 1 p.m.

In Saturday’s game, the Mustangs trailed briefly, but it didn’t take them long to adjust to the Chargers.

Albrandon Byjoe, the team’s co-captain, led MV up and down the court. Offensively, he was doubled-team, allowing him to get his teammates involved.

At other times he either cut to the basket or nailed some long-range shots.

Byjoe and teammate Keiyan Mann helped MV take a 13-8 advantage after one-quarter of play.

The Chargers adjusted, holding Byjoe to only two points in the next quarter.

However, the Chargers were held in check too. They were held to nine points, with MV leading 23-17 at halftime.

The defense the Mustangs have been practicing all season seems to pay dividends. They kept most of Benjamin Franklin’s starters from scoring in the first half, and only three of their players managed to sneak their shots in. Zach Sombrero was the only Charger player off the bench to get a trey, but that was it.

“There was weeks where we just did nothing but defense,” Monument Valley head coach Randolph Gilmore said. “We’re playing the type of defense we knew we could play since the beginning, and it’s coming along at a good time, too, because we need it now at the end of the season.”

In the second half, Byjoe came out ready to play. By the end of the third quarter, he sank two treys, a two-point basket, and a pair of free throws scoring 10 of MV’s 14 points.

On the Chargers’ end, Malakhe Sanchez scored five of the team’s six points.

In the fourth, Monument Valley’s Roberto Flores stepped up and put up 12 points for the team.

Byjoe, on the other hand, assisted his teammates, getting the ball to Uzziel Flores, who ended the game with eight points.

At the end of the contest, Byjoe was recognized for scoring over 1,300 points, and Roberto Flores was also acknowledged for hitting the 1,000-point plateau.

“The game went pretty well; just everyone chipping in and doing their thing,” Byjoe said. “And it’s just a unity that we have, and that chemistry is just really something, especially at the end of the season.”

Flores is anticipating the game against Coolidge to be a tough one.

“We’ll worry about that later,” he said on Saturday after the game.

The game plan on the board in the locker room on Saturday was “just have fun.”

Gilmore said they’re already working on a new game plan for today’s game.

With four seniors on the squad, Gilmore said this is their last year to get as far as possible in the playoffs. Three of those players were last year’s squad starters that lost to Coolidge 67-42 in the 3A playoffs.

With Benjamin Franklin handing Coolidge a 53-51 loss, Gilmore said they used Saturday’s game as a metering stick.

“That was a close game,” he said of the Coolidge-Benjamin Franklin matchup. “It was kind of like a gauge for us to see — the level of play that Coolidge may play at. But we’re still preparing.”

Gilmore said to help the team prepare, they’ll watch the film on Saturday’s game and look for areas they need to work on.

“We know our defense can be better. There’s times we do these little errors, and teams capitalize on those errors,” he said, “so, we’re trying to fix all that.”

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