Flagstaff’s Josh Lenners, 4, grabs a loose ball while breaking up a ride on a Cortez player at Flagstaff High School Wednesday night.
Flagstaff’s Max Fritsch (15) shoots during a game against Cortez on Wednesday at Flagstaff High School.
It wasn’t exactly pretty with 40 fouls and a junior varsity coach from Cortez dumped in the third quarter, but the Flagstaff boys’ basketball team won and kept their playoff hopes alive.
The Eagles, who were only two places outside a playoff place in the 4A conference in 18th place, defeated the Colts in 36th place in a game filled with fouls (54:42) on Wednesday evening at War Memorial Gymnasium.
While the fouls shared at Cortez at 21 and Flagstaff at 19 weren’t great, Eagle head coach Nick Walton was more pleased with the win and the team that had survived a largely full season.
“To be honest, I’m just glad we played a season,” said Walton. “That was the main focus and that’s what we had to do. I’m just very proud of our boys. We could have stopped; things were looking a little bleak there. Prescott was tough but we bounced back right away and a great Buckeye team beat. “
Flagstaff improved to 8-9 with one game remaining. Max Fritsch led the Eagles with 13 points and Nick Morrow controlled the color with 10 points and a solid performance on the glass as the tallest player on the floor.
Flagstaff suffered a late Cortez surge in the fourth quarter. The Eagles went into the last eight minutes and led by 45:28, but the visitors reduced them to 49:40 in the middle. The Eagles responded with a Fritsch floater and later a Nick Sneezy bucket to keep the Colts from getting any closer than nine.
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