{"id":24308,"date":"2024-12-20T22:36:16","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T05:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pair-of-top-ranked-class-3a-teams-will-meet-in-rumble-finals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:51:19","slug":"pair-of-top-ranked-class-3a-teams-will-meet-in-rumble-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pair-of-top-ranked-class-3a-teams-will-meet-in-rumble-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair of top-ranked Class 3A teams will meet in Rumble finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Robertson's
Robertson's Jesse James Gonzales drives to the basket and is fouled on a shot attempt by Bayfield's Lincoln Williams in the second quarter during Aztec's Rumble in the Jungle tournament semifinal game on Friday, December 20, 2024, at Lillywhite Gym. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

AZTEC \u2013 The finals of the Rumble in the Jungle boys basketball tournament are set after victories in the championship bracket by two of the top-ranked Class 3A teams in the state.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a recap of Friday\u2019s second round action.<\/p>\n

Robertson rolls past Bayfield<\/div>\n

Robertson punched its ticket to the championship game after defeating Bayfield 72-52 Friday afternoon in the semifinal round of The Rumble in The Jungle tournament at Lillywhite Gym.<\/p>\n

Robertson (6-2), ranked sixth in the most recent Maxpreps polling, will face another notable Class 3A opponent in the championship contest Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when they line up against third-ranked Tohatchi (8-1).<\/p>\n

Bayfield will look to secure third place against host team Aztec at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Robertson\u2019s 2-3 defense is formidable, and aimed to frustrate its opponents early, keeping Bayfield off the scoreboard for nearly five minutes into the first period while its offense rattled off eight unanswered points.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines weren\u2019t about to be phased like its southwestern counterpart Durango was when the Demons faced Robertson in the first round of the tournament Thursday.<\/p>\n

Bayfield senior Cooper Roderick had his way in the early going against a pesky Robertson defense, scoring 10 of Bayfield\u2019s 12 points in the first period, forcing the Cardinals to revert to a man defense.<\/p>\n

\n

Boys Rumble in the Jungle Tournament Scoreboard<\/h4>\n

Friday (Second Round)<\/strong>Championship Bracket<\/em>Robertson 72, Bayfield 52Tohatchi 80, Aztec 59Consolation Bracket<\/em>Ignacio 79, Shiprock Northwest 9Durango 49, Bloomfield 43<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After a slow start on the scoreboard, Robertson went on a 14-point run midway through the second period to grab some much-needed separation from the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn any given night, I feel like any one of our guards can give you plenty,\u201d Robertson senior Brian Lucero said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re clicking together everything just falls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson freshman George Smith demonstrated a quick first move to gut down the heart of Bayfield\u2019s box defense, paired with eight consecutive takeaways from its defense, the Cardinals got streaky, and the team could smell blood in the water.<\/p>\n

\"Tohatchi's
Tohatchi's Josh Dawes drives to the basket and is fouled from behind by Aztec's Jaden Sims in the second quarter during the Aztec Tiger Rumble in the Jungle tournament semifinal game on Friday, December 20, 2024, at Lillywhite Gym. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Robertson\u2019s defense held the Wolverines to seven points in the second period, outscoring Bayfield 22-7 in what was the defining period for the Cardinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense is our motto. Steals lead to more offense,\u201d Lucero said. \u201cWe feel like we can compete with anyone and when we\u2019re hot, we\u2019re a dangerous team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick did his best to match the prominent 3A juggernaut, but Robertson turned in a great period shooting in the fourth, converting 67 percent from field in a period that Bayfield could ill afford for the Robertson offense to get hot.<\/p>\n

Smith led all scorers with an impressive 20 points while teammate Lucero checked in at 11 points.<\/p>\n

Roderick with Bayfield\u2019s lone spark, finishing the afternoon with 21 points.<\/p>\n

Tohatchi routs Aztec in front of the home crowd<\/div>\n

Tohatchi was on a mission Friday night, ending host team Aztec\u2019s hopes of making the championship game in 80-59 triumph at Lillywhite Gym.<\/p>\n

The confidence booster comes at the right time for the Cougars before it takes on one of Class 3A\u2019s best in Robertson for the tournament championship 7:30 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited, the boys are excited and ready for tomorrow,\u201d Tohatchi head coach Kendall Livingston said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an exciting game, they have an aggressive defense but I think if we keep it simple, it\u2019ll be a one or two possession game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tohatchi's
Tohatchi's Adriano Begay passes the ball to a teammate while under pressure from Aztec's Quintin Secatero in the fourth quarter during the Aztec Tiger Rumble in the Jungle tournament semifinal game on Friday, December 20, 2024, at Lillywhite Gym. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A disappointment for Aztec hoping to get into its tournament\u2019s championship game will have to settle for a hopeful third place when it faces Bayfield at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

After a slow start by both squads, Tohatchi went on an eight-point run while Aztec\u2019s struggles from the field remained.<\/p>\n

The Tigers deployed a full court press, but the Cougars exploited the backside of it, giving Aztec post Daniell Hall a tough time for all four periods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to keep basketball simple and keep the movement to one guy and get it going off of that,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n

Tohatchi wasn\u2019t necessarily perfect from the field either, but consistently grabbed more rebounds both offensively and defensively, constantly out playing the likes of Hall and senior Paxton Williford for Aztec.<\/p>\n

The Cougars took a 16-point lead into the half and that\u2019s all it needed to put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n

Aztec senior Jaden Sims performed commendably, especially from the 3-point line, but Sims had very little help from his teammates from the field. Sims finished the night with 19 points for the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Tohatchi seniors Josh Dawes and Kyle Yazzie led the charge for the Cougars with 18 and 15 points respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robertson and Tohatchi post double-digit wins in semifinals at Aztec High<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1707,592,799,28,679,642,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec-high-school","tag-durango-high-school","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78478,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24308\/revisions\/78478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24308"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}