The Sand Devils boys basketball team chalked up two more victories last week against Northwest Christian and Camp Verde, but lost to Coconino High School on Saturday night, 63-52.

Prior to Saturday’s loss, the Sand Devils had been on a five-game win streak dating back to Feb. 16. Their record stands at 9-4 (Editor’s note: The Sand Devils played the final game of the regular season Tuesday night, after this paper went to press).

Friday night was the last regular-season home game, and it was also senior night. With more and more people having received COVID-19 vaccines and with the metrics trending downward, the Arizona Interscholastic Association relaxed its safety protocols a bit and allowed more fans into the gym to witness the game.

The additional fans added a lot of energy to the game-time environment, which seemed to feed the Sand Devils’ play.

And the electrified Sand Devils played well. The Sand Devils starting five have played well most of the season, but there have been times throughout the season when they needed more from their bench. But the Sand Devils’ bench is young and lacks experience. This is a challenge the Sand Devils hope to address as they enter the postseason.

If one of the team’s starting players gets into early foul trouble, gets injured, or just gets tired and needs to spend some time on the bench, a strong team may be able to use those minutes to add points against them.

Head Coach Justin Smith acknowledges that his team’s lack of depth is one of its weak points, but he also sees his players improving with each game.

“I like our work ethic and our resolve,” Smith said. “They keep playing hard every second they’re on the floor, and never give up, whether we’re winning or losing.”

Smith is excited to see how his team performs as they enter the postseason.

“We just keep getting better,” he said, “and hopefully we’ll peak at the right time. We still haven’t peaked yet. Hopefully, we’ll do that in the middle of next week.”

Lady Sand Devils

For Lady Sand Devils fans, it is still a mystery how good the Lady Sand Devils are. 

Thirteen games into the season, they have yet to lose a game. Not only that, no team has even come close. Only two teams have scored more than 25 points against them while the team’s offense typically puts up 50 to 65 points.

One of the season’s most impressive wins came just last Saturday against Bradshaw Mountain, a 4A team, which the Sand Devils defeated 55-20.

Under the tutelage of Head Coach Ryan Whitehorse, the Lady Sand Devils have both depth and experience.

This year’s seniors have been to the state championship game every year. The Sand Devils took second place last year and first place the two years before that.

The team’s starting five is led by point guard Miquedah Taliman, who inherited the position from her sister Mikah Taliman. With the ball in her hands, Miquedah stays calm under pressure and sets the pace of the offense.

The girls run a patient offense, looking for high-quality shots. When they’re running a set offense, they prefer to get the ball down low to their senior center Torrance Begay. Taliman and Begay get ample help from Neve Redhair, Nadya Begay, and Emma Yazzie.

And the Sand Devils’ bench is deeper than the Mariana Trench. A convincing argument could be made that the second best team in the 3A North Central Division is the Sand Devils second team.

The Lady Sand Devils play a swarming, smothering defense. They play a full-court press against their opponents from the game’s opening play and so far, few teams have been successful even getting the ball past the half-court line. On the occasions they manage to move the ball into their own end of the court, they then have a difficult time getting the ball within 10 feet of the basket.

Teams move the ball around on the perimeter of the Sand Devils defense trying to find a seam to the inside, until it starts to look like a team with a six-point lead playing a stall offense. Most of the Sand Devils offense is generated from steals produced by its defense.

To anyone watching the Sand Devils from the sidelines, it has appeared that no team this year has given them a significant challenge, but Whitehorse says his team has played against some good teams. “Snowflake was a very good, physical team,” he said. “We discovered a mismatch underneath and we exploited it. It came down to executing our offense.”

As the Lady Sand Devils move into the play-offs, Whitehorse says his team has only one goal.

“We have a mission,” he said. “I expect my girls to win state, and they expect that of themselves, and to get to that we’re going to keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing all season, but just get better at it.”

Whitehorse believes his team is ready.

“Maybe no one else knows how good we are yet, but I think my team knows how good they are,” he added.