Chinle defense steps up for Cake Chevrolet title

 

The Chinle Wildcats boys' basketball team captured the Cake's Chevrolet Shootout with a win over the Showflake Lobos, 71-61, in the championship game on Saturday in Winslow.

Led by All-Tourney selections Denzel Harvey and Mathias Claw, Chinle finished the tournament with 4 wins and no losses and improved their overall record to 6-1.

"Harvey is a workhorse on the inside and plays well around the basket," said Chinle coach Ned Curley. "Mathias is our leader on the floor and he gets the points when we need it. They both played really well in the tournament."

Harvey averaged 22 points per game while Claw averaged 15. In the championship game, Harvey had a game-high 27 points and Claw added 24.

To reach the finals, Chinle beat Blue Ridge (78-52) in the first round and Hopi in the quarterfinals (80-55). In the semifinals, Chinle had no problem with Page (71-43).

Against Snowflake, Curley said the Wildcats just had too many weapons.

"All we did is what we needed to do to win the game," he said. "In the beginning it was close and they tried to stay with us, but we just have too many weapons. We're loaded on the bench."

Chinle jumped out early for a 20-15 lead after the first quarter, then added 22 points to Snowflake's seven in the second quarter for a 42-22 halftime lead.

Snowflake scored 24 points in the third quarter to Chinle's 13 to cut the lead to 55-46. In the fourth, Chinle had a one-point edge, 16-15, which was enough to secure the win.

Curley credits his defense for the wins throughout the tournament.

"We needed to be aggressive on defense and create turnovers and we did that," Curley said. "We took advantage of other teams' mistakes. We're pretty good right now."

Snowflake was led by Payton Flake with 19 points and Robby Martindale with 13.

Chinle begins play today in the Pepsi Invitational in Flagstaff against Estrella Foothills at 4:30 p.m. at Flagstaff High.

3rd place

Winslow held off Page for third place with a 52-48 score.

Winslow led at the half, 27-20. Led by Vincent Littleman, Page had a narrow 37-35 lead after the third. In the fourth, Winslow outscored Page, 17-11, and for the final score.

Stacey Berg paced Winslow with 22 points. Berg and Kraig Shirley were named to the All-Tourney team for Winslow. Winslow finished the tournament 2-2 and 5-1 overall.

For Page, Littleman scored a game-high 25 points. Ryan Sellers was named to the All-Tourney team.

Alchesay Invite

After suffering their first loss of the season to Alchesay, Window Rock returned the favor by beating the Falcons, 75-57, to advance to the championship game against Eloy Santa Cruz on Saturday.

Window Rock, who beat Santa Cruz earlier (67-56) in the round-robin tournament, defeated them again, 74-48, to win the tournament.

Window Rock head coach Gil Clauschee said the Scouts only suited up nine players and had to move up junior varsity players for the weekend tournament.

Clauschee said the loss to Alchesay was due to the younger players committing costly turnovers.

"We had nine players and we had a younger and inexperienced team," he said. "We turned the ball over a lot and the main thing was that we didn't play good ball."

Window Rock was without their leading scorer, senior point guard Chris Tallwood, who sat out the tournament with a broken thumb. Tallwood was replaced by senior guard Daniel Begay.

"Daniel has been playing lights out for us," Clauschee said of Begay, who had a game-high 21 points in the championship game. "He averaged 19 points per game in the tournament."

Begay was named All-Tourney. Scouts senior guard Derrick Mitchell, who scored 13, was named the tournament's most valuable player.

"I'm happy with our performance and our defense is starting to kick it into gear," Clauschee said.

"We shut down their top scorers," he said. "Roshton Ignacio had only two points and Theus Lupe, we held him to 10 points.

"We're averaging 77 points per game, which is not a problem for our offense, but our opponents are averaging 53 points per game," Clauschee said. "If we can keep them under 50, we can win all our games. Overall, our defense played real well."

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