Window Rock, Tuba boys find ways to win, advance into semis

FORT DEFIANCE – In a wire-to-wire game, the Window Rock Scouts received a game-saving charge from senior Isaacc Hickson with under two seconds left that sealed a 50-49 win over the Monument Valley Mustangs in the 3A North Regional Basketball Tournament on Thursday.

Hickson planted his foot roughly two-feet from the basket and fell to floor as Monument Valley senior Latrell Begay attempted a layup for the go-ahead score.

“I just saw him coming down the lane, so I had to take a charge,” Hickson said.

The one-point win sends the Fighting Scouts into tonight’s semifinals against the top-seeded Page Sand Devils at 6:00 p.m. at the Bee Hóldzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance. The three-day tournament is sponsored by Marathon MPLX Corp.

In the bottom half of the bracket, the Tuba City boys also advanced as the third-seeded Warriors erased a seven-point deficit late in the fourth to post a 61-56 win over upset-minded Ganado in Thursday night’s finale.

Tuba plays second seed Chinle at 3 p.m. with the winner advancing into Saturday’s championship game, which is slated for 5 p.m.

“We didn’t panic,” Tuba City first-year coach Robert Blackhat Jr. said. “When it was time to get locked in, they were playing at a level that we expected them to be at, so I was confident that they would come back.”

The sixth-seeded Hornets led 54-47 with 4:32 remaining after sophomore post Alfravero Reid-Ortiz hit a two-point basket. That basket capped an 11-0 run as Ganado had the momentum.

Miscues, however, opened the door for Tuba as the Warriors closed out the final four minutes on an impressive 14-2 run. During that stretch, Ganado turned over the ball five times.

For Tuba, senior guard Tyler Tsinnie gave them a spark as he put in six of his team-best 22 points despite playing with four fouls. His second basket with 2:29 remaining gave Tuba the lead for good at 56-54 as the Warriors rode out the momentum.

“I just wanted to get the spark going,” said Tsinnie, who sat on the bench for a couple of minutes before he was reinserted into the game with over three minutes left.

“Once I start going, our energy comes up,” he said. “The better energy that we have, the better we play.”

Tuba City assistant coach Nolan Tsingine said the difference in the game came down to defense.

“It starts with the defense, and it ends with the defense,” said Tsingine, who lamented on the team’s sluggish play early in the contest.

“We just got too complacent and too comfortable,” he said. “Nothing against Ganado, but we started to play at their level. You could see that in the first quarter because we weren’t playing as good as we usually do.

“We told the guys that ‘it’s now or never,’” he added. “If we win, we get to play another day. We’re encouraging them to play hard because this could be their last game, so we need to leave everything we have out there.”

In addition to Tsinnie, the Warriors also had senior guards Aiden Dugi and Deiondre Whiterock in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

For Ganado, senior forward Isiah Ivey finished with a game-best 25 points while junior post Eayden Murphy added 13.

Window Rock

Other than Hickson’s game-saving charge, there was nothing pretty in the waning moments of the MV-Window Rock contest. In fact, things got a little hairy as both teams traded turnovers down the stretch in this highly contested game.

With a 49-48 lead, the Mustangs were looking to inbound the ball near midcourt, but Window Rock junior Jaylen Brown (nine points) forced a tie-up that gave Window Rock the ball.

Following a timeout, Brown hit the game winner with an out-of-bounds play with 14 seconds left.

With possession, MV turned over the ball while trying to inbound the ball under Window Rock’s basket, but the intended pass for Begay was overthrown.

Nevertheless, the Scouts gave the ball back to MV as they were whistled for a 5-second infraction for not inbounding the ball with 12.4 seconds left.

With some time on the clock, MV drew up one more play but Begay was called for an offensive charge, ending Mustangs hopes of advancing into the next round.

“We had to keep playing until we heard the whistle,” Window Rock coach Ashley Mitchell said of the helter-skelter finish. “The main thing we try to emphasize is doing the little things. Part of those little things is taking charges.”

As for Brown’s key steal, the Window Rock coach said that’s part of his M.O.

“That was really big,” Mitchell said. “That’s the reason why Jaylen is the No. 1 stealer in the state of Arizona. That’s his specialty, so I didn’t expect anything less out of him.”

For the first three quarters, the Scouts were paced by senior guard Xavier Young as he finished with 19 points.

“It was win or go home, so I wanted to make the best of it,” Young said of his performance.

His best quarters came in the second and third as he put up five treys to lead all-scorers.

“He’s a shooter,” Mitchell said of Young. “He has the green light to shoot, but the one thing he needs is to be is more consistent. We need him to be consistent in all four quarters because he was scoreless in the fourth quarter.”

MV had three players in double figures headed by the 16 points turned in by Lattrell Begay. Senior Ralph Gray III chipped in 14 while sophomore Mekhi Parrish added 12.

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