MV boys win third consecutive 3A North region title

FORT DEFIANCE – Monument Valley senior Uzziel Flores had quite the afternoon.

The Mustang point guard dazzled the large crowd at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Scouts Events Center on Saturday with 20 first-half points.

In the second half he was held to just four, but the rest of the Mustangs chipped in to help secure MV its third straight 3A North Region tournament title under the direction of Randolph Gilmore.

The Gilmore-coached team pulled away with a decisive 58-48 win over Chinle, evening its season record at 14-14.

“Well, this might be surprising to some people but it wasn’t a surprise for us,” Gilmore said of the win. “We had a lot of bumps throughout the season but we continued to work.”

With three consecutive region titles, the Mustangs are in rare company as the MV coach believes it hasn’t been done for quite some time. Earlier this season he spoke with Chinle assistant coach Julian Parrish about the Wildcats falling short prior to MV’s three-year reign.

“He brought it up and he was telling me it’s hard to win the region championship three years in a row,” Gilmore said. “He told me Chinle’s only done it twice, but they never got that third one. Honestly, we weren’t thinking about winning another championship. Our mindset was to win another game and we happened to win another championship.”

The latest championship was derived from playing team ball.

“This was a good team win,” the MV coach said. “In the first half Uzziel shot lights out and then everybody else pitched in. Shawn Shorty had like 10 rebounds, and he wasn’t even the tallest kid out there.

“The kids were being aggressive and we continued to do the little things that you don’t see in the stat sheets,” he added. “The little things we did was what helped us win the game.”

Flores kept the Mustangs afloat by getting to the foul line as he made 6-of-7 free throws in the opening half. He also recorded three treys.

“I just wanted to start strong and get (Chinle) a little scared,” Flores said. “I wanted to show them that we were a much better team than what we showed before, and I think we got to their heads.”

Of Flores’ made threes, his third one stood out the most as the MV guard took an in-bound pass from the sidelines for a no-look turnaround three-pointer at the top of the key just as the buzzer sounded despite being doubled-teamed.

That trey put MV on top 30-29 at the half.

“At first I didn’t think it was going to go in at the release,” Flores said. “But when I was watching the ball going toward the goal I knew it was going in. I’m just very happy that I made that, it got me all hyped up.”

With Flores being held to four points in the second half, MV had others pick up the slack. Senior Jaden Redhouse scored six of his nine markers in the third stanza while junior guard Ralph Gray put up all of his nine points in the fourth.

Junior Latrell Begay was a third MV member to score nine as he had five of those points in the opening half.

“We played team ball and we all played unselfishly,” Redhouse said. “We tried to not let them speed us up. We played our game and we kept our tempo with how we like to play. That is how we came out on top.”

The Wildcats’ up-and-down game never materialized other than a few breakaway layups from seniors Tristan Xicohtencatl and Jostaiah Harvey, the 3A North’s Offensive Player of the Year.

“We never got into a good rhythm,” said first-year Chinle coach CJ Woods, whose team dropped to 20-6 overall. “Monument Valley had great rhythm throughout the game. They got Flores attacking the ball, so I thought they had a nice game play.

“The ball just didn’t fall for us and sometimes when the ball doesn’t fall in it’s about making sure we have great possessions when we pass the ball, when we make screens,” he added. “Not only did the flow not work for us in putting the ball in the hole, but I also think we got a little stagnant on what we were doing offensively. We just didn’t execute on our halfcourt sets, and we didn’t execute in transition.”

Chinle received balanced scoring, with eight of 15 players recording at least two points. Xicohtencatl led the Wildcats with 11 points while junior Kalem Denetsosie added 10. Chinle also had senior Stephan Antone and Harvey chip in nine points apiece.

The Woods-coached team earned the No. 8 seed and they received a first-round bye in the 3A state playoffs. Chinle will host the survivor of Wednesday’s match between No. 24 Tucson Sabino and No. 9 Coolidge on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Wildcat Den in Chinle.

“We’re happy with the No. 8 seed, but we’re not satisfied,” Woods said. “We want to make sure that we’re doing the best we can at this time of the year. I’m just happy that we get to play one more game at home for our seniors.

“It’s special for them and it’s special for the program,” he added.

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