Page, Chinle boys advance to title game

CHINLE

In contrasting styles, the top two seeds in the 3A North Regional boys’ basketball tournament advanced into Saturday’s championship game.

The Page Sand Devils, the tournament’s top seed, defeated No. 5 seed Window Rock by a 65-40 count.

Chinle, meanwhile, eked out an 87-83 win over Monument Valley in a No. 2 vs. No. 3 matchup.

Window Rock will play Monument Valley at 11:30 this morning for third place while top-seeded Page will battle Chinle at 7:30 p.m. in the championship game.

“Chinle is a well coached team with a very good player,” Page coach Justin Smith said following his team’s 25-point win.

The Sand Devils (25-1) played close attention to the first semifinals as Chinle senior Cooper Burbank put the hammer down by scoring 39 points, which included a 16-of-16 effort from the free throw line.

The Wildcats needed all of his free throws, especially late in the contest as Burbank sealed the deal for the No. 2 seed in their come from behind win.

“We’re just glad to get out of here alive,” said Chinle coach Raul Mendoza, whose team improved to 19-10 overall. “We didn’t play too smart at times. We didn’t take care of the ball and we put them at the line 19 times in the first half.”

Mendoza felt that his team did a better job in shoring up some of their mistakes in the second half.

Nonetheless, it appeared the Mustangs (13-14) had the momentum when senior post Simeon Thinn hit a baseline trey for an 81-78 advantage with 1:56 left in the contest.

And after forcing a jump ball at the other end, MV regained the possession with head coach Richard Beverly calling a timeout to draw up a play.

The Mustangs, however, spent too much time on the sidelines as the game official set the ball down on floor and started his count.

The Mustangs had to hurry onto the floor and by the time they inbounded the ball the Wildcats got a timely steal with junior Colin Yazzie cutting the lead down to 81-80 with 1:23 left.

A pair of free throws from freshman Albrandon Byjoe pushed MV in front by three but Chinle had an answer in the form of sophomore guard Kylen Yazzie, who hit a tying trey with 50 ticks left.

In the closing seconds, the Mustangs missed three shots while Cooper nailed 4-of-4 free throws to secure the win.

“Cooper played an exceptional game and he helped us pull this one out,” Mendoza said.

In addition to Burbank, the Wildcats also got 18 points from Kylen Yazzie while Colin Yazzie added 15 and Curtis Begay chipped in 10.

For MV, Byjoe finished with 27 points, which included a 15-point effort in the third stanza.

Sophomore Andrew Sheppard added 24 as the Wildcats had a tough time corralling the speedy guard.

In the late game, Window Rock played the Sand Devils tough for a quarter-and-a-half but in the closing minutes of the first half the Scouts had some costly technicals as Page junior Robert Smith nailed 3-of-4 free throws for a 31-21 cushion.

On the ensuing throw-in, Smith hit a trey for a 13-point advantage before Page settled for a 34-23 halftime lead after Cauy Silversmith hit a late layup.

The Scouts (13-15) cut that deficit down to 45-36 heading into the fourth but in the last stanza they looked overmatched as Page pulled away.

“I thought we played better defense in the second half,” Justin Smith said.

Page got contributions from eight players with four of those players scoring in double figures headed by the 14 points turned in by Robert Smith and 6-10 junior post Stuart Sandall.

Senior guard Gabe Gomez chipped in a dozen while junior forward Jonah Holiday added 11.

“We have five, six guys that can score 20 points a game,” the Page coach said.

Silversmith led Window Rock as the junior guard finished with a game-best 16 points. Senior Marion Ynunza added eight.

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