Striking Eagle Basketball Invitational
Monument Valley boys advance to semis
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Monument Valley Mustang Irwin Holiday, red jersey, keeps the ball away from Laguna Acoma Hawks Matt Sanchez, left, and Jacob Aragon (50) Thursday night in Casa Blanca, N.M. The Mustangs defeated Laguna Acoma, 75-70, and will face the Zuni Thunderbirds at 4:30 p.m. at the University of New Mexico Johnson Center in Albuquerque, N.M.
CASA BLANCA, N.M.
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Laguna Acoma’s Jacob Sanchez (12) tosses the ball into the air for the basket as Monument Valley’s Irwin Holiday (5) reaches in for an attempted block Thursday during the Striking Eagle Basketball Invitational in Casa Blanca, N.M.
The Monument Valley boys’ basketball team needed to bounce back and their guard play provided it on Thursday night.
The Mustangs entered the 5th annual Striking Eagle Basketball Invitational losing four of its last five games so head coach Anderson Holiday was looking for his team to turn things around.
The Mustangs rallied around the play of Cauy Nelson, Royce Charley and Levi Charley en route to a 75-70 victory over Laguna-Acoma.
“We struggled a lot the past few games but when it came to crunch time my boys came through,” Holiday said. “We settled down on offense and we played a better man-to-man defense tonight.”
The three guards combined for eight treys with sharp shooting ace Royce Charley knocking down four, including two at the start of the fourth stanza with his last one pulling the Mustangs within 59-58 at 5:49 mark.
“He’s our best three-point shooter and he came through tonight,” Anderson said of Charley. “He already told me he was going to shoot those threes but you never know what’s going to happen on the court.”
Mustang senior post Kane Parrish then hit back-to-back buckets to give Monument Valley a 62-61 edge with four minutes left in the contest.
The Mustangs stretched that margin to six points before Laguna-Acoma went on a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 68-67 after junior Matt Sanchez connected on two free throws with 1:33 to go.
At the other end, though, Parrish completed a three-point play and the Mustangs closed out the game by knocking down 4-of-5 free throws to earn the hard-fought five-point win.
“We did not know anything about them but we just tried to stop their fast break,” Anderson said of Laguna-Acoma. “Their guards shot the ball so well and that was our main emphasis at halftime. We wanted to stop their shooters.”
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Laguna Acoma Hawk Sean martin (1) goes up against Monument Valley Mustangs Trevon Holiday (30) and Thomas Nimrod (11) Thursday in Casa Blanca, N.M.
Parrish led the Mustangs with 20 points while Royce Charley had 16. The Mustangs also had Nelson score 15 and Levi Charley added 13.
With the win the Mustangs advanced into the winner’s bracket and they will play Zuni at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at the University of New Mexico Johnson Center. (Zuni defeated Thoreau 69-57 in their quarterfinal match.)
Laguna Acoma will play Thoreau at 10:30 a.m. also at Johnson Center.
The Hawks had two players in double figures with Jacob Sanchez scoring 26 points while Sean Martin added 18.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow