The Mingus Union High School boys basketball team finished its season on Feb. 18 during its play-in game for a playoff berth against the Cactus Shadows Falcons, but lost 51-47.
The team’s 22-7 record is the best it has seen in a decade, since its 22-8 record in 2016.
Prior to the game, the Marauders were ranked No. 12 in the 4A conference, and the Falcons were No. 25, with a record of 20-5. The Marauders were ranked No. 2 in the Grand Canyon Region, behind the 18-3 Coconino High School Panthers.
The Marauders started the game strong and kept about a 10-point lead through the first half, ending the second quarter with a 28-19 lead.
By the end of the third quarter, the gap had closed to 38-36, with the Marauders still in the lead.
With a minute and 15 seconds left in the last quarter, a free throw for the Falcons nearly tied the score, and a three-pointer shot with 28 seconds left on the close put the Falcons two points ahead. The last shot of the game, with two seconds left on the clock, gave Cactus Shadows its four-point victory.
“They threw their best punch, and we just couldn’t respond to it,” senior Ricky Villalobos said following the game. “It’s just how the game goes.”
While the Marauders were disappointed about the game’s result, the players were happy about making it this far.
“Last season we were not good at all,” senior Bransen Phillips said. “To do something Mingus hasn’t done in however long, I’m proud of that.”
The last time the Marauders played a play-in game for the playoffs was 2019, when the then No. 15 Saguaro Sabercats beat the No. 18 Marauders, 72-50.
“Obviously it hurts, but it’s a milestone, it’s the first time Mingus has had a 20-win season in 10 years,” Head Coach Austin Hudson said.
He said the team will come back next year and be ready for everything the season will throw at it.
“Eleven months out of the year, we’re doing basketball,” Hudson said. “Everybody on our varsity and our JV is committed. Nobody would have thought that we’d even be a playoff team.”
Hudson said his favorite thing was being able to see his seniors grow up.
He started as the freshman coach when the players were in ninth grade and worked with them their whole high school careers.
“When I first moved to Cottonwood, and my daughter was 1 year old,” he said. “Now she’s 4. … I hadn’t had my son yet. I had a son, so I’ve been raising a family out here in Cottonwood, my family’s been around these boys. They’re a big part of my life.”
Hudson said he’s sad to see the seniors go.
Phillips said his favorite part was just “playing basketball with my guys.”
“We’re all friends on and off the court,” Villalobos said. “We go to each others’ houses, and we eat with each other. It’s just we’ve been friends since elementary school. So, we just grew up with each other for sports and everything.”
