The crowd packed into the Page high school gym to see the Sand Devils play the Tuba City Warriors in a home conference game last Thursday.  

Gabriel Gomez was on fire with the steals throughout the game and he returned his first steal of the night to the top of the key for the first basket of the night.
The Sand Devil’s tried a variety of shots but couldn’t find the hoop and the Warriors took advantage of the rebounds.

Both teams committed several mistakes in the early minutes of the game and they seemed hesitant to play in their usual aggressive manner.

With four minutes remaining in the first quarter Anu Sloan slowed the pace to study  the Warriors and help his team find their mojo. The Warriors set up a zone defense that pushed the Sand Devils to an outside perimeter offense.

The Sand Devils once again picked up the pace and were able to find openings in the Warriors defense. The Sand Devils also stole the ball several times which they converted to their fast break offense. Gabriel Gomez and Sloan made some critical shots and retook the lead.

The Warriors grewfrustrated and began to make mental mistakes. The Sand Devils took advantage of the mistakes and were able to draw fouls, taking them to the free throw line.
The Sand Devils took the lead 16-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Going into the second quarter both teams once again found their game faces. The Sand Devils’ tried a motion offense to overcome the in and out shots that plagued both teams.
The already frustrated Warriors grew even more frustrated as they still failed  to find the hoop.

Their frustration cost them two technical fouls, which Gomez was able to hit one of the free throws.

The Warriors fared a bit better after switching from a zone to a pack-line defense which garnered them more rebounds and seven more points before the end of the first half. The Sand Devils led 21-19 at the half.

The third quarter gave the crowd the game they had been hoping to see. It began with Sloan driving the ball down center when two Warrior defenders came in from the side to deny him the lay-up. Sloan switched up his shot with a double clutch and hooked the shot from behind the glass, which amazingly went in. Sloan was on fire.

The Warriors added another 11 points to their score.  Holiday rebounded several offensive boards and put them back in the bucket.  

Holiday finished the quarter with a beautiful reverse lay-up that helped the team with total of 6 points. Sloan brought in a total nine that widened the Sand Devil’s lead 40-30 at the end of the third, and added another 12 points during the fourth quarter for the win 52-45 win.

“I felt like we should have won by more points than we did,” said head coach Russ Skubal. “But there was that hesitation to play [familiar] players they are close with. But in the second quarter we got over that and did better in alternating our zone defense.”In the last minute rather than have the ref keep calling fouls Anu played smart.”

The Sand Devils easily defeated the Ganado Hornets 64-25 last Saturday. They are now 13-3 for the season. Their next game is this Saturday against Window Rock.