Tohatchi turns back Aztec

TOHATCHI – An inadvertent hit to the noggin in the opening quarter sidelined Tohatchi guard Josh Dawes on Friday night.

The senior had be taken out twice to address the gash above his left eye during Tohatchi’s nondistrict game with Aztec High.

And when he got back onto the court, Dawes made his presence known as he led all scorers with 23 points.

“He got a cut right above his eye,” Tohatchi head coach Kendall Livingston said following his team’s 73-48 win.

Dawes received his cut in Tohatchi’s first possession when he got tangled up with Aztec’s Quintin Secatero, who also had a gash.

“Josh is the leader of our team and he’s a type of guy that really unselfish,” the Tohatchi coach said. “We run screens off of him and we run dribble handoffs off of him and, you know, he’s just an all-around player.

“He can command his troops, just like a general,” he added. “He commands them on what they need to do. If I have to put him on the block, he’ll go to work on the block. He’s just been tremendous for us.”

The Cougars also received solid production from senior post Adriano Begay (14 points) and guards Kyle Yazzie (11 points) and DeAndre Rios (nine points).

“We got our bigs going there for a little bit, and then we relied on our guards,” Livingston said. “That kind of helped with our transition game and overall it was a good shooting night for us.”

And although the Cougars won by 25 points, Aztec gave them some early fits. The Tigers trailed 14-12 entering the second, but they seized a 21-18 advantage behind three treys from senior guard Jaden Sims with 6:12 left in the second quarter.

The Cougars, however, capped the half on a 20-8 run, which led to a 38-29 cushion.

After the break, the Tigers stayed within striking distance and trailed 46-38 after sophomore Breylon Phillips knocked down a 3 with 2:54 left in the third.

But a 3-pointer Rios jumpstarted a quarter-ending 8-2 run as the Cougars opened up 54-40 cushion.

In the final eight minutes, the Livingston-coached team held Aztec to eight points in its runaway win.

“We can’t start sluggish like we did tonight, but we kept grinding and grinding,” Livingston said. “We made the adjustments to where we were closing out on their shooters. We pressured the ball a lot more in the second half, more than we did in the first half.”

Livingston added that his team pushed the tempo more to its liking as Aztec did not have an answer.

“I told the guys to push it because after a while Aztec got tired on us,” Livingston said. “They didn’t want to run with us anymore, so I kept telling them to push the ball.

“Of course, they had to know when to push the ball, and when to bring it back out and run a play,” he added. “I think we executed that very well tonight. We got some wide open looks.”

Aztec coach Ryan Dee admitted that after playing three solid quarters, his team got worn out.

“I’m not going to make excuses because I think we have a set rotation, but we’re coming back from break and we have people coming up from JV,” Dee said. “We had a couple of good practices, and we were pretty confident coming in here. We just got tired towards the end.

“Once (Tohatchi) got a string of steals, they got hot,” he added. “We just got overplayed, and we got overrun.”

Sims led the Tigers with 16 points on four treys. Junior Christian Jacquez added 11, which included seven in the opening quarter.

Despite coming up on the short end, the fifth-year Aztec coach believes there are some positives his team can take from this loss.

“We’re going to look at film and we’re going to go back to the drawing board, and make some adjustments,” Dee said. “The big goal is to get ready for district. We want to prepare, and I think we have a good chance. I have a solid squad and I love my boys. We’ve endured adversity, but we’ve been resilient.”

On Friday, Aztec will host Bayfield, Colorado before entertaining Espanola Valley on Saturday.

Tohatchi, meanwhile, is entered in the six-team Gallup Invitational. The Cougars are set to play the Grants Pirates at 4 p.m. at Gallup High.

“That’s going to be a good test for us,” Livingston said of the Pirates. “I’ve been watching film on them, and we’re going to see what kind of adjustment we have to make on them. We have three games there (at the tournament) and then we go right into the district season.”

Tohatchi opens up district play with defending 3A state champs Navajo Prep on Jan. 15.

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