Page, Ganado, MV boys eke out wins to advance

FORT DEFIANCE

The Ganado boys basketball team survived to fight another day.

With their season on the line, the fourth-seeded Hornets finished Thursday’s quarterfinal game on a 7-0 run to upend No. 5 Tuba City, 61-57, in the opening round of the 3A North Region tournament at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance.

“We had a pretty good push,” Ganado senior guard Wyatt James said. “We had to keep fighting to the end. Our shots had stopped falling but we stuck to the basics.”

Ganado moves into today’s semifinals with top-seed Chinle. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

In other tournament action, second-seed Page received a scare from No. 7 seed Window Rock before posting 55-52 win while No. 3 Monument Valley outlasted Alchesay 42-40 in another exciting game.

Page and MV will play each other at 4:30 p.m. with the winner advancing into Saturday’s championship game that is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Ganado

With 2:32 left in the fourth quarter, the Hornets trailed the Warriors 55-51 after Tuba City’s Ethan Mallahorn connected on one of two free throws.

But thanks to back-to-back threes from James and senior Grant Paddock, the Hornets finished out the game on a 10-2 run to pull away.

“We didn’t panic,” Paddock said. “We just played defense and we knew that we could come back. We just trusted one another.”

James led Ganado with 22 points and four treys while Paddock added 19.

For Tuba City, Tyrell Begaye finished with 16 points and Tyler Tsinnie chipped in 11 while Mallahorn added 10.

Ganado needs to make the regional championship game in order to garner an invite to the 3A state playoffs, which start next week.

“That’s what we’re hoping to do,” Ganado coach Tom Toadecheenie said, as the Hornets have won six of their last seven games.

“I have to credit the boys,” the Ganado coach said. “They put in the work and we’re playing a lot better than we were at the start of the season. The chemistry is starting to come around and I hope we can carry this into our game with Chinle.”

Like his coach, James said he’s excited to play the Wildcats.

“I feel like we’re going to be ready for it,” James said. “Chinle has some good players like Jostaiah (Harvey). He’s a good player and I feel like our bigs can give him a good challenge.

“If we can do that I think we can make something happen,” he said.

Monument Valley

Despite holding down the No. 24 spot in Thursday’s Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) statewide rankings, the Mustangs may have to reach the 3A North Region title game to make state.

“We are on the bubble,” MV coach Randolph Gilmore said. “Even though we’re the No. 24 seed, another team in another region can take our spot so we need to get to that championship in order to go to state.

“We want to go to state,” he added.

To keep its postseason aspirations alive, the Mustangs made three of six free throws down the stretch to hold off Alchesay.

“We did just enough,” Gilmore said. “Our free throw percentage was not good, so we have to do better on that in the next game.”

The Mustangs were led by seniors Uzziel Flores and Kerry Nash, as the two players combined for 26 points with Flores scoring 14 points.

Alchesay received a game-best 20 points from senior forward Brent Aday and 10 from senior guard Chauncey Newhall.

As for tonight’s semifinals, Gilmore is expecting another close game as Page won the last meeting 58-56 on Jan. 23.

“It should be a good game,” the MV coach said. “Anything can happen in regionals because everyone wants to go to state. The teams that aren’t in the top 24, they’re working hard to go to state.”

Page

In a game of runs, the Page Sand Devils erased an eight-point deficit (50-42) to score a 55-52 win over the upset-minded Fighting Scouts.

The Sand Devils notched the first run as they opened the game with a 20-2 lead behind a 12-point effort from junior post/guard Tyree Stingley, who finished with a game-best 34 points.

After trailing 21-6 in the opening stanza, Window Rock abandoned its 2-3 zone and found plenty of success with its press in the second quarter.

The turnovers they forced created offensive opportunities as the Scouts got eight points from sophomore Makye Gilbert and seven from junior Jayden Lilly during a torrid 26-4 second quarter run.

At halftime the Scouts led 32-25.

After the break Stingley scored seven straight to tie the game at 35-all in the middle of the third quarter. But the Scouts capped the period with another run to go up 44-40 heading into the fourth.

Window Rock extended that cushion to 48-40 with a two-point basket from senior post Calvin Begay with 6:28 left.

Behind the steely play of Stingley, Page wiped away that deficit and rallied with a 15-4 spurt to end Window Rock’s season.

“We had a good first quarter and a good last three minutes,” Page coach Justin Smith said. “I feel like our boys battle all the time. They play hard. They don’t always play smart, but they play hard.

I’m never going to be too disappointed with the win at this time of the year, but I can’t also be so happy with a win like that,” he said. “I’m just proud of the resiliency that we showed today.”

In that final push, Steely scored eight straight as his two-point basket at the 2:46 mark gave Page the lead for good at 53-52.

“We played in a hostile crowd,” Stingley said. “It was really loud in here and I’m just glad that we came back. This was crazy, but we showed some toughness out there. We worked our butts off to get this win.”

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