Tohatchi boys throw wrench into District 1-2A race

TOHATCHI, N.M.

There’s never a good time to be satisfied.

Especially, in a league that is well balanced across the board.

On Tuesday night, a monkey’s wrench was tossed into the conference standing in District 1-2A as the Tohatchi Cougars shot lights out for one half of play.

The Cougars made 6-of-13 treys in the opening half and built a 39-18 lead at the break against Newcomb en route to a 73-49 win.

“This was the first time this season we’ve played a game like that,” Tohatchi coach Albert Jim said. “We were pretty close at other times but my guys simply flat out played tonight.”

With the double-digit win, the Cougars finished the district season with a 6-2 record and will finish no worst than second in the league standings.

As for the rest of the district, there are a multitude of possibilities on how each team will be seeded for next week’s district tournament.

As of today, the Newcomb Skyhawks (18-5 overall, 6-1 in league play) truly control their destiny if they take care of business in its home finale with Crownpoint.

On Tuesday night, Crownpoint posted a one-point win over Navajo Prep while Rehoboth remained idle as these three teams have identical 2-5 records.

With the margin of error extremely thin, Newcomb coach Dominique Richardson acknowledged that district race is far from over as his club dropped its first district game of the season on Tuesday.

“This is a tough place to play and the thing is we still have a chance to play them at home,” Richardson said of Tohatchi. “We just have to take care of business on Thursday. We just have to let this one go.”

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