Coconino Panthers face the Tempe Buffaloes at Roth Gym in Flagstaff, Thursday February 16, 2012, at 7:00 pm.  The Buffaloes were runner-up in the 4A Div II  championship in 2011.  They have a 13-6 record in power points games.  Coconino comes in as the 11 seed, with a 15-4 power point record.

Arizona Daily Sun, 2-8-2012

Today’s Division II, Section II opening-round basketball game between Coconino and Flagstaff High Schools isn’t a David vs. Goliath battle between a heavily-favored team and a huge underdog.

And it’s not merely a game to see which team will move onto the second round to continue its quest towards a state championship while the other sees its season end.

It’s so much more important.

Coconino (15-3) — the No. 3 team in Section II — is playing to beat the Eagles (12-6 and No. 6) for the third-straight time, while Flagstaff will be trying to prove that the Panthers’ 47-42 win last Friday was a fluke.

Never mind that the team that wins today’s game will definitely get the City bragging rights once and for all, at least for this season.

While the cross-town rivalry games are hostile environments — to say the least — when Flagstaff hosts Coconino and vice versa, Eagles’ head coach James Kirk doesn’t expect the heated rivalry to burn out in the least just because today’s game is on neutral turf.

“I expect a lot of the same,” Kirk said. “We know them, they know us and it’s going to be a battle and a lot of fun. It’ll be the same rivalry. All the games between us and Coconino are intense.”

Coconino assistant coach Martin Reyes said expects both teams to play an intense game with everything they’ve got, but said he doesn’t think playing each other somewhere other than in Flagstaff will have the same atmosphere.

“It’s a big game and we’re taking the tournament one game at a time, and every game is important,” Reyes said. “Since it’s in a neutral site, for both teams it’s going to be a little less emotional. When we play here (in Flagstaff) it’s in front of big crowds and emotions get into it. We’re going to play hard but there isn’t all the commotion going on, so I think it’ll be just as intense just a different kind of intense.”

While Kirk added he wishes the game was being played in Flagstaff, he said the Eagles are sticking to what they do best, and said he doesn’t expect any surprises from the Panthers.

“We work all year on things and have a quite a bit in our system, now it’s all up to how well we execute it,” he said. “It’s hard for anyone to put anything new in in just a couple days so we’re going to use what we practice all year.”

Reyes also said the Panthers don’t plan on any big surprises, but added that beating Flagstaff twice will be something in the back of the minds of all the Eagles’ players.

“Beating them the first time had an effect on them,” he said. “It was like someone shot them out of a cannon Friday. They came out and threw some hard punches, we staggered and had to gain our footing to come back and win.”

The Eagles’ leading offensive producer, senior wing Callum Long, averages around 15 points per game, but Kirk said Flag High will need points from all its players who get on the floor to win.

“We’ve got to have some points from all our kids. Callum is our high-scorer but teams concentrate on him. Tevin (Tso) and Ryan (Townsend) have scored a lot for us and Aaron (Yazzie) knocks down shots, but we also need our inside guys like Reid (Smith) and Tyler (McCoy) to get us points. We don’t need 20-25 points from one person, we need a whole team effort to win,” Kirk said.

Coconino has plenty of its own weapons to deal with, but Reyes doesn’t think any one player will have a big effect in the game if it goes how he thinks.

“It’s all going to come down to how we guard them, how we play team defense and how good our team rotations are, Reyes said. “We don’t run our offense for anyone in particular, so we don’t look for Josh (Ingram) to get 25 or for Skyler Zweifel to be open on every play.

“Andy Bonner averages 18 points a game and he’s been under double digits both times against Flagstaff,” Reyes added. “Our philosophy is that if you’re open and have a good shot, take it.”

The rivalry aside, Kirk said the Eagles are going into today’s game — and the whole sectional tournament — with the right winning attitude.

“Any time you go into a game you’re playing to win and that they beat us twice creates motivation,” Kirk said. “We would like to earn more power points and get on a roll of winning, so we’re going into the sectional tournament as if we’re going to win it.”

The third meeting between the Eagles and the Panthers tips off at 5:45 tonight at Phoenix Thunderbird High School.

Arizona Daily Sun February 4, 2012

After having their 14-game winning streak broken by Phoenix Paradise Valley on Thursday, there was no way the Coconino Panthers were going to start a losing streak.

Especially to Flagstaff in the second City game Friday night.

Down by nine points at halftime, Panthers’ head coach Kelley Smith challenged his team to forget about the long and tiring road trip, and instead asked his players to dig down deep.

“We asked the kids at halftime to find their fighting spirit and overcome that first half and Thursday’s game,” Smith said. “We knew Flag would be very fired up to beat us, so I’m just very proud of our guys to overcome what they have in the past 48 hours.”

Coconino (15-3 and No. 3 in Division II, Section II) outscored the Eagles (12-6 and No. 6) 34-20 in the second half en route to a 47-42 win and a season sweep of the City series.

Coconino senior Josh Ingram, who said none of the teams he’s played on in his three years as a varsity player, scored 25 points and added nine rebounds to lead a scrappy Panthers’ squad.

“It’s amazing and it’s hard to describe,” Ingram said. “We can carry this momentum into the state playoffs, which is where we want to succeed.”

Ingram powered his way to double-digit scoring by not only dominating in the paint, but also by hitting a pair of threes.

“I knew they were going to have matchup problems with me, and my teammates got me the ball in places I could score,” he said. “But it was a team effort, it wasn’t all me. The guards dished the ball out really well.”

Andy Bonner and Skyler Zweifel added eight and seven points for Coconino, respectively while Flagstaff was led by Ryan Townsend’s 11 and 10 from Callum Long.

The Coconino defense took Long out of the game in the second half, but Smith said the Panthers were nowhere near their best defensively.

“Defensively we struggled, and it’s because our legs are gone,” Smith said. “We really weren’t at our best on defense, but we expected that.”

Both teams banged around in the paint, putting the Eagles at the free-throw line 18 times for nine points, and the Panthers at the stripe for an 11-for-16 shooting night.

If the power points standings stay the way they were at press time, the Panthers will host Flagstaff in the opening round of the playoffs, but the official tournament bracket doesn’t come out until early next week.

“We’re very happy and we’re expecting great things (in the tournament),” Smith said.

Junior guard Skyler Zweifel drilled five 3-point shots to lead Coconino with 15 points, and the Panthers (14-3) had two late shots to win the game, but couldn’t convert.

Phoenix Paradise Valley broke the Panthers’ 14-game winning streak with a 52-50 win.

“Overall it was a good game,” Coconino assistant Martin Reyes said, “but we fell behind and didn’t start playing again until the end of the third quarter.”

Paradise Valley (16-2) outscored the Panthers 18-6 in the second quarter, and that was the difference in the game.

Andy Bonner scored 13 points and Josh Ingram led the team with 11 rebounds, despite only playing the first two minutes of the first half because he got into foul trouble.

The Panthers also lost Jason Conigliari for the second half after he caught an elbow in the eye. Reyes said Conigliari will be questionable for Coconino’s game tonight against Flagstaff.

“We’ll be ready to go (tonight),” Reyes said.

Week stay at Wyndham Kona Hawaiian Resort along with $1500.00 in cash to defer travel expenses.

https://www.wyndhamvacationresorts.com/ffr/resort/details.do?id=0095

Only 300 tickets will be sold.  Drawing to be held on February 28, 2012.

Single tickets are $25.00 or five for $100.00

Tickets can be purchased at home games or from team parents.

Email coconinobasketball@gmail.com for more information.

Despite how much energy the Panthers spent last week, they had more than enough to outpace the Eagles on Tuesday night.

With three days off, an intense, packed-house rivalry game almost seemed easy in comparison to what the Coconino boys basketball team went through in their five-game stretch in the midst of finals week.

After winning five games in eight days — including three in a row last Thursday, Friday and Saturday — the Coconino outran and outmuscled host Flagstaff High 51-45 on Tuesday. It was the Panthers’ (11-2, No. 5 in Division II power points) 11th consecutive victory as they enter the backstretch of the season.

Nothing has come easy for the Panthers, and all the hardship they have endured has only made them stronger.

“This has been the season of true adversity,” said Coconino coach Kelley Smith, who was more proud of the squad’s cumulative 3.8 GPA than anything else they have done this season. “There’s a very bright future for this young group.”

With a backlogged schedule due to make-up games that were postponed due to snow, this year’s Panthers — who are mostly juniors — are gaining valuable experience in what continues to be a special season for them.

“(Last week) was really tough but it showed how diverse we are — to be able to go through stuff like that and still be able to come out and get it done,” said junior Skyler Zweifel, who had 10 points in the game. “It shows how hard we work at things.”

And they certainly had to work to beat Flagstaff High (8-3 overall, No. 16 in Division II power points), which held a 25-23 lead in the third quarter before the Panthers went on an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.

While the Panthers tried to pull away late in the fourth quarter with a 13-point lead, the Eagles never gave up as Callum Long continued to drive to bucket for layups and finished with a game-high 20 points.

“They got a few shots to fall and they got in rhythm,” said FHS senior Ryan Townsend, who scored six points in the contest. “They played really hard defense so it was hard for us to get to the rim. We figured it out toward the end of the fourth quarter but it was too little, too late.”

Coconino’s swarming defense limited Flagstaff High’s offense as only four Eagles made a field goal. Although many of the Panthers were playing in their first city rivalry game at the varsity level, the extra intensity paid dividends.

“We had so much energy and so much fight in us,” Zweifel said. “I was a little nervous at the beginning but once we got in there, the confidence kicked in and we just knew what we were doing.”

Even for the Panthers who had played in front of the deafening crowd before, that extra experience wasn’t much help before tipoff.

“I was just as nervous as I was last year,” said junior Josh Ingram, who led the Panthers with 14 points and nine rebounds.

But the difference in the game was the Panthers had more opportunities to score as their defense locked the Eagles down.

“We made shots,” Ingram said. “Skyler’s 3 (which put Coconino up by 13 with less than 1:30 to go) was the dagger.”

But so was the Panthers’ energy level. Even though they could have wilted after last week’s grueling stretch, they proved there is plenty left in the tank.

“Honestly, they outhustled us,” Townsend said. “They’re one of the best teams we’ve played.”

Read more: http://azdailysun.com/sports/high-school/turn-it-up-to-chs-boys-beat-fhs/article_f729a9f2-fdc4-52aa-96a7-5d2f249a61dc.html#ixzz1jpO8fAtN

The Coconino boys basketball team only allowed Tuba City Greyhills Academy (3-8) eight points in the second half of an inter-divisional game en route to a 55-26 win.

Skyler Zweifel scored a team-high 15 points and Josh Ingram added 11 for the Panthers (9-2), who led 33-16 at halftime.

“We played everybody a healthy amount of minutes,” Coconino head coach Kelley Smith said.

Ray Baldwin had six rebounds, six steals and four assists for the Panthers.