Greyhills Academy Fightin’ Knights head to Phoenix<br>

The Knights pulled away to a nine-point lead twice at 57-48 and 58-49 with 30 seconds left in the game by making key free throws going down the stretch. Sahuarita stayed in the game and trailed by four points at 58-54 by scoring points at the free-throw line. Fouls were called against the Knights going after loose balls and trying to get a steal in the last two minutes of the contest.

The Knights put an exclamation point on the game when they stole the ball in the closing seconds and found Tsingine on a fast break for an uncontested lay-up to make the final score 61-54.

The Knights again struggled scoring at the start of the game missing seven shots inside the arc. Amos Smith finally ended the drought by sinking one shot at the free throw line three minutes into the game and they trailed 5-1 at the 4:50 mark. Derek Begay hit his first three-point shot a minute later and they trailed 7-4. Begay ended up 16 points in the first half including four treys, but was held scoreless in the second half due to four fouls and spent much of his time sitting on the bench.

Sahuarita made a 6-0 run and led 13-4 with less than three minutes left in the first quarter. When the Knights were down 17-8, Begay hit his second trey to and started a 7-0 run by the Knights to pull within one point 17-16 with 10 left. But Sahuarita hit a trey from downtown between the circles at the end of the first quarter to go up 20-16.

The Knights were held scoreless again for nearly two minutes in the second quarter while Sahuarita went up by 10 at 26-16 until Begay hit another trey to make it 26-19. Every time the Knights made a run, they would follow it with a drought and put themselves in a dungeon where their opponents had been all season long. The Knights fought back again and only trailed by three at the half 32-29.

Donald Nez hit a trey to open the third quarter and tied the score at 32-32. After exchanging buckets, the Knights hit another drought and went scoreless for two more minutes while Sahuarita scored seven unanswered points and led 41-34 with 4:20 left in the third. It looked like the Sahuarita would pull away, but little did anyone know, a young sophomore was anxious to get in the game for the Knights.

The Knights again battled back to 45-37 when Tsingine hit the three-pointer to swiftly change the momentum and give the Knights the win to advance to the final four at the America West Arena next weekend, Feb. 27-28, 2004.

The Knights shot 31 percent field goals in the first half while Sahuarita shot 50 percent. The Knights improved a little to 32 percent for the second half while holding Sahuarita to 28 percent. The Knights ended up shooting 32 percent while Sahuarita shot 35 percent overall.

The story is in the fourth quarter where the Knights’ hard-nosed defense held Sahuarita to only 13 percent shooting while improving theirs to 50 percent.

Leading the Knights in scoring were Derek Begay with 16, Craig Tsingine with 14, and Amos Smith had 10. The leading scorers for Sahuarita were Mike Joudeh and Grant Stavros with 11 points each respectively. Chad Bernal and Derek McChive both added 8 points respectively.

The Fightin’ Knights will play at 1:30 p.m. on Friday against Rio Rico, the number two seed from the South, at the America West Arena.

Knights vs. Safford

The 3A North Conference three-point champion made a big difference in the win for the Greyhills Fightin’ Knights over determined Safford Bulldogs 53-47 Friday morning at the Walkup Skydome in the 3A Regional playoffs.

The Knights had to overcome three cold spells in the game and depended on Derek Begay who stepped up to carry the team with 30 points. Begay sank three three-pointers in third quarter, and scored 14 points in eight minutes, to rally the Knights that seem to whip the Safford Bulldogs and sent them scampering home with a disappointed end to their season.

The Knights came out cold missing their first seven field goal attempts. They did not get on the scoreboard until nearly three minutes into the game when Marcus Begaye made one out of two free throws. They went scoreless again for another three minutes until there was two minutes on the clock. The Bulldogs had the lead 9-3 behind the shooting of Vincent Barney and Chris Taylor. Derek Begay hit a trey that helped the Knights break the ice and they scored seven more points to trail the Bulldogs at the end of one 14-10.

The Knights’ Begay came out and immediately hit a trey to make it 14-13 ten seconds into the second quarter. LeThaniel Gishie hit a turn around jumper at the top of the key and a minute later LeDaniel sank another trey for the Knights and they were up on the Bulldogs 18-14.

The Bulldogs hit a cold streak and missed their six field goal attempts during the second quarter until half way through there was 3:45 on the clock when they made a free throw. The Knights kept building on their momentum and outscored the Bulldogs 15-5 to lead at the break 25-19.

In the third quarter, Begay woke up the crowd of more than 3,000 fans as he sank a trey a couple of minutes into the quarter to make it 28-23. He followed that with another trey from the left wing of the arc to make the score 31-23. Begay took the game into his hands as he took advantage of his speed and his shooting. The Bulldogs went man-to-man, but he drove into the paint and scored a short jumper and was fouled to make a three point play. He went to the free throw line two other times and connected on all of his shots.

The Knights went up by 10 at 33-23 and then by 14 at 39-25, but the Bulldogs came back when the Knights went cold during the last two minutes of the third. The Bulldogs shortened the gap to within nine points at 39-30 at the end of the third.

The Knights came out in the fourth quarter still struggling with their shooting as the Bulldogs had a 4-0 run to make the score 39-34 with nearly seven minutes left in the game.

The Knights had to chip away the ice from the rim with a free throw with less than six minutes on the clock. After that free throw, Begay sank another trey to put the Knights ahead at 43-36. It looked like the Knights were pulling away with less than five minutes left in the game when they made two more points.

The Bulldogs then made a 7-0 run to pull within two at 45-43 with three and half minutes left. The Knights finished the game with an 8-0 run as the Bulldogs were gasping for air and putting up desperation shots that just wouldn’t fall.

Begay led all scorers with 30 points including 100 percent from the free throw line sinking eight for eight shots. He made six three pointers in the game and was the man of the hour for the Knights. LeThaniel Gishie had nine points, LeDaniel Gishie had eight while Marcus Begaye and Amos Smith added three point each respectively.

For the Safford Bulldogs, Vincent Barney had 17 points, Chris Lopes had 10, and Chris Tayler contributed nine points

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