‘This is not over’: Panthers slide in rankings after first loss

FLAGSTAFF

The Coconino boys’ basketball team saw a slight drop in Tuesday’s power rankings by the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

The Panthers fell one spot to No. 4 in the statewide 4A rankings after dropping their first loss of the season last Friday night to No. 9 Prescott Valley Bradshaw Mountain, who moved up two spots.

The Panthers never led in this Grand Canyon Region game as the Bears snapped Coconino’s 11-game winning streak with a 55-49 win.

“We didn’t play a great game tonight,” longtime Coconino coach Mike Moran said. “We took bad shots in the first half and we didn’t move the ball that well. We were jacking up stuff in the first half and we shouldn’t have done that. We usually didn’t do that.”

Moran said his team played poorly but he gave a lot of credit to the Bears and their coach Blair Hillig.

“Coach Hillig has done a good job down there,” he said. “We’ve been battling them for the last three, four years, and they got us tonight. I thought they outplayed us and they looked a lot fresher than we did.”

Panther guard Jacob Begay said their play last Friday night was not indicative of how well they played in the previous 11 games.

“We’re a much better team than this,” he said. “We really didn’t move the ball from side to side the way we like to. We like to wear teams down and I feel like we didn’t do that.”

In addition, Begay conceded that his team didn’t push the ball enough to tire out 6-8 Bradshaw Mountain post Nathan Summit, who finished with eight points.

“We didn’t have that many transition buckets,” he said. “We didn’t attack and we didn’t push the ball as much tonight.”

Despite trailing from the onset, Coconino put together a few runs to stay within striking distance in the opening half.

The Panthers cut an 11-point deficit down to one thanks to an eight-point effort from junior guard Mitchell Jacobson. The Coconino sharpshooter hit a pair of treys with his second one coming at the 5:33 mark as the Panthers trailed 18-17.

Bradshaw Mountain, however, gained a little breathing room as they led 24-21 at the break. The Bears extended that margin to 37-27 at the end of the third quarter with senior guards Carter John and Anthony Folkstead combining for 13 points, which included three treys.

Despite being on their heels, the Panthers didn’t go away. They got back-to-back treys from seniors Preston Olney and Amare Tom to trim Bradshaw Mountain’s lead down to 37-33 with 4:50 left in the contest.

Things, however, took a turn for the Coconino squad, as they could not draw any closer. Behind six points from John, the Bears built a 51-40 cushion with 32 second left.

Coconino made one final push as they closed out the contest with a 10-4 run with Olney scoring eight of his team-best 16 points.

Senior power forward Hayden Nez added 11 while Jacobson chipped in eight and Begay finished with six.

“Preston and Jacob didn’t have a good game tonight,” Moran said. “They’re phenomenal players and they’re good guards but they just had an off-night.”

In his best game this season, Moran said Nez was very productive on both ends of the floor as he held Summit four below his average.

“We’re not very big and that 6-8 guy is a pretty tough dude,” the Coconino coach said. “He changed the game a little bit for us but we had to suck it up.

“We had some great buckets inside and Hayden Nez played a great game,” he added. “He had 11 points and that big guy was guarding him. He did a heck of job for us inside.”

On Tuesday, Coconino hosted winless Mohave. Results for that contest were not available at press time.

The Panthers will close out the regular season in a rematch with Bradshaw Mountain today.

“This is not over,” Moran said. “We have to suck it up and get them at their place.”

“We have to come out a lot stronger,” Begay said of tonight’s contest. “We need to push the ball and play harder on defense. We need to get those 50/50 balls.”

Looking ahead, Moran said his team deserves one of the top seeds for the upcoming 4A playoffs.

“We can compete,” he said. “On any given night we can win and if we can get a first-round home game anything can happen. We’re small so we got to run, we got to shoot the ball and we got to really get up and down the floor to be successful.”

Statewide, the Coconino coach said all the teams in 4A will be chasing top-ranked St. Mary’s and second-ranked Salpointe Catholic.

“Salpointe Catholic is the returning champion,” he said. “Those two teams are head and shoulder above everybody else.”

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