Snowflake girls captures first basketball title in 28 years with win over Payson

By Jacob Seliga

Lead Writer

The Snowflake girls basketball program won its first state title in 28 years Saturday after defeating Payson. (Jacob Seliga/Staff)

In front of a passionate pro-Payson crowd, the Snowflake Lobos met the Payson Longhorns at Veterans Memorial Coliseum for the 3A girls Conference championship. 

Behind a stout defensive performance, the Lobos won the 3A championship game, 49-37, to bring home their seventh state championship in program history and their first in 28 years. 

“It means an awful lot to bring a championship home, you can tell we have more than parents just up in the stands. all the community support is great, they truly do care for us,” said Snowflake head coach Mike Brogan
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These two programs are rivals, having been part of the 3A East Region for years. But for the first time in decades, they were separated in the most recent region realignment. However, the level of respect both sides share for one another can’t be replicated. 

“I (Brogan) have such a good relationship with Chaz Davis, we’ve been sharing film and man, his team has gotten better and better, when they went to Page in the first round of the Copper and lost by three, I told our coaches last Monday, don't be surprised if we see them here,” said Brogan. 

Snowflake jumped out to a 26-13 first half lead behind 18 points from the trio of Kenadi Stuart, Taylie Hancock and Nicole Hipps. The Lobos also led the rebounding category 24-12 at halftime, with all seven Snowflake players in the first half having had at least two rebounds. 

With such a dominant first-half performance, a concern could be that the Lobos would come out in the second half flat. 

After all, Payson is a team that got to the state championship by taking advantage of teams that made that same mistake, including the night before.

Friday evening, amongst a crowd of over 9,000 fans, Payson rallied from a 21-point deficit to defeat the No. 1 seed Chinle, 53-51, in one of the biggest comebacks in the history of girls basketball in Arizona.

During the comeback, Payson forced Chinle into 31 turnovers, the majority of which came in the second half. 

Early on in the second half, it appeared as if Payson was on its way to making another run after jumping out to a quick 7-0 run to cut the Lobos lead to six, forcing two quick timeouts from Snowflake to stop the bleeding.

“We wanted to address some of our coverages on the ball screens and make sure we didn't give up three point baskets since we gave up a little bit on the roll where we typically wouldn't,” said Brogan.

The Lobos wouldn’t allow the Longhorns to cut it that close again.

Behind Ryah Denhalter and Haylee Westover, Snowflake extended the lead back to 15 points in a wire-to-wire victory in which the Lobos led for 31 out of the 32 minutes. 

When it mattered the most, the Lobos hunkered down and would not be denied what was likely to be theres to win from the beginning of the 3A Conference tournament.