Two bad quarters doom Chinle in state semifinal

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Mar 1, 2018 | Basketball |

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Chinle Wildcat William Carroll (21) drives between guarding Winslow Bulldogs Zach Wagner, left, and Djassa Yoann on Friday during the Arizona 3A boys semifinals at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

GLENDALE, Ariz.

Some of the concepts the Chinle boys’ basketball team learned during the regular season went missing at key moments in the Final Four round of the Arizona 3A boys state basketball tournament.

The Wildcats had two bad quarters against eventual champions Winslow last Friday night as Chinle was eliminated following their 68-57 loss in the state semifinals.

“I think the little things hurt us,” Chinle coach Raul Mendoza said. “We didn’t stop the ball, get the rotation we needed on defense. Offensively we became impatient. I thought we did some things out of character.”

After trailing 5-0, the Wildcats played in character as they tied the game at 12-all on a basket by junior Angelo Lewis with 3:08 left in the opening quarter. Sophomore guard Cooper Burbank kept their momentum going by nailing down four straight free throws for a 16-14 lead.

Following a basket by Winslow’s Darius James, Chinle got a big three-pointer from Dwayne Tom that ignited a quarter-ending 7-2 run as the Wildcats led 23-16 going into the second.

Chinle was unable to sustain that momentum for the next two quarters as Winslow took the lead for good at 28-26 on a basket by senior Ricardo Villanueva with 4:03 left in the opening half.

“Chinle is a very good ball team and I have a lot of respect for what they do,” Winslow coach Scott Corum said. “They play hard and they play fast. We knew that we had to set the tone early because they had the bigger crowd. We wanted to get our crowd involved too.”

Corum said it was their defense set the tone for them as they caused 15 turnovers, including eight steals.