Holbrook hosted Snowflake in the first official round of the 3A state tournament on Tuesday night. The seventh seeded Roadrunners came back to the 3A bracket following their Copper tournament loss to San Tan Charter. The 10th seeded Lobos came into the game on the heels of a big win over Tuba City in the pool play portion of the state tournament.
Holbrook came out hot making five 3-point field goals in the first eight minutes. Two each by Braylon Taliman and Manny Guerrero. Amare Nelson added 1, and Travis Bia netted 7 the old-fashioned way in the paint, helping Holbrook build a 19-12 first quarter lead.
In the second Snowflake flipped the tables. They made four treys and held Holbrook to just 1, tying the game at 28-28. Little did Holbrook fans know, that would be their last 3-point field goal of the season. Holbrook didn’t make another 3-point field goal the rest of the night but still battled to a 47-47 score at the end of regulation.
The Lobos made two late game treys to help tie the game. In the overtime Holbrook lost the services of Bia to fouls and the Birds failed to score, resulting in the 54-47 Snowflake win and the end of Holbrook’s season.
Bia led Holbrook with 13 points in his final game as a Roadrunner. Nelson, another senior added 12. Taliman added 9; Manny Rico, 8, Guerrero, 6; and Brady Becenti helped with 2. Holbrook made 8 3-point field goals and went 6 for 8 at the line.
The Lobos were led by Landon Clare with 21 points. They also made eight 3-point field goals and went 4 for 9 at the line.
With the loss Holbrook ends their season with an overall record of 19-10.
Bia was named the East Region Player of the Year, Delmar Johnson was named the East Region Co-Coach of the Year, along with Snowflake’s Matthew Smith.
Rico was selected to the All-Region first team in a vote taken by all the region head coaches.
