'One game at a time'

 

S ometimes winning isn't enough.

That's what the 3A North Region Monument Valley thought when they earned a 53-38 victory over 4A-Division II Page on Tuesday.

"I thought we could have started the game a little better than we did," said Mustangs head coach Jacob Holiday.

Holiday said, although his team improved every quarter, the expectations were high considering his team was the defending conference champions and made the Elite 8 in the state tournament last year.

"We're a team building for the future," Holiday said.

For the Mustangs, Shayne Begay led the team with 14 points and senior Aaron Armendez had 13.

The two combined for six of the 12 points that left Monument Valley tied with Page 12-12 headed into the second quarter.

In the second quarter, Begay and Armendez combined for nine of the 17 points scored by the Mustangs, which gave them a 29-24 led at halftime.

But Armendez said that still wasn't enough.

"We could have done better," Armendez said. "We started pretty slow, I guess we weren't ready to play."

But with a go-get-em speech at half time they were more than ready.

The Mustangs outscored Page, 15-2, in the third quarter, leading the game 44-26 going into the fourth.

"It's just the motivation speech our coach gave us," Armendez said. "He told us to step up, work as a unit."

With the help of Page's leading scorer Ryan Sellers, who led the team with 13 points, the Sand Devils were able to out score the Mustangs 12-9 in the fourth quarter.

Page head coach Vernon Brazeal said, "Defensively we didn't do a good job with basic fundamentals."

Brazeal said he knew his team was up for a fight.

"In the first half we did a decent job of battling...we were rebounding and attacking the basket," Brazeal said. "I thought they played hard the whole time but the third quarter in my mind is when the game was won and lost."

Holiday agreed, adding that his team played a better second half but didn't play error free.

"We had motivation," Holiday said. "(But) I think we're a better defensive team. We could sustain and maintain consistency and we need to rebound better. Rebounding is nothing more than heart and desire."

To Holiday, there's always room to improve.

"Obviously you have to make adjustments for a team," Holiday said. "(But) it's one game at a time."

Girls (sub)

Patience is key.

That's what the Page Lady Sand Devils learned as they defeated the Monument Valley Lady Mustangs, 56-44, on Tuesday.

"We needed to be patient on offense and play good defense, play with intensity," Page junior Chelsea Curley said her head coach, Jim Adkins, told the team.

But Curley said her team found that it wasn't as easy as he made it sound as Page committed a number of turnovers and had to rely on 6-foot-2 center T.J. Manson.

Mason, who led the team with 33 points, had six of the 13 points scored by Page at the end of the first quarter, to put them in the lead, 13-7.

In the second quarter, Manson had 10 of the 20 points Page scored to put them up 33-22 at the half.

Manson said despite the lead, the points they allowed Monument Valley to score were too much for a 3A team against the defending 4A-Division II Grand Canyon Region champions.

"I think the girls needed to calm down and have confidence in themselves," Manson said. "They could have won without relying so much on me."

But Adkins thought differently.

Having lost seven seniors to graduation, Adkins said his team lacks experience. With the lack of experience comes a tendency to rush, which is what he saw.

"It's definitely an issue that we have," Adkins said. "In the past we've always been a team that took the first available shot. But there's no need for that especially when we have a player like T.J.

"In the first half, two starters ran into early foul trouble, but we were able to play them more in the second half," Adkins said.

Page led at the end of the third quarter with a score of 47-34. But with 5:20 left in the game and Page leading 52-39, Manson fouled out.

With two free throws from Mariah Gilmore and a three-pointer from Crystal Todachine, Monument Valley edged closer, 52-44, to the 2008 4A state runners-up.

But turnovers and time were their enemy.

"What we tried to do was run, take the ball down," Monument Valley head coach Robert Nash said. "We made some passes that we shouldn't have, but that'll come with time. There's some minimal mistakes that took us out of the game."

Nash added that he has a fairly young team.

"Page is a good ball club, I'd rather play them early in the season than during conference play," Nash said. "Tonight wasn't our better game. We're still trying to get some things together."

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