Entering the 5A conference playoffs, no matchup carried more intrigue than the region battle between the No. 6 seed Willow Canyon Wildcats and the No. 11 seed Centennial Coyotes.

These teams split their regular season matchups. The home team won each time by double digits, although both teams were missing key contributors in each matchup. 

With both teams at full strength, the physicality of playoff basketball was exemplified late in the fourth quarter. Following the third of Braylon Haman’s three second half steals, Haman drove into the paint for a wide open layup but was pulled out of the air by a Coyote defender resulting in a flagrant foul and an ejection.

Moments like that popped up throughout the Wildcats 86-63 victory Wednesday. 

“Although the basket was waived off, my teammates knew I was going to make those two free throws. We knew that the momentum had changed right there and that we got it,” said Haman.

The Wildcats advance to play #3 Canyon View Jaguars in the 5A quarterfinals on Friday night. This will be the second time these teams have faced off this season, and the first since the championship of the Sunnyslope Hoopsgiving tournament in late November, with the Jaguars pulling out a 64-59 victory. 

Willow Canyon had jumped to a 40-30 lead only a minute into the third quarter but within three minutes its 10-point lead had been cut to two behind two and-one baskets by both Gage Galbreath and Andrew Lopez and a breakaway layup by Keyan Murphy. 

Needing a spark, Haman and Kaleel Kelly combined for 11 points in the final four minutes of the quarter to take a 58-44 lead into the fourth quarter with all of the momentum on their side. 

Learning how to play with and without momentum was an important lesson for the Wildcats from the Open Division playoff bracket.

As the No. 32 and last overall seed, the Wildcats had the opportunity to face off against the defending back-to-back state champion Perry Pumas in the first round, Willow Canyon couldn’t find a rhythm and fell 75-43 on the road. 

With the loss, the Wildcats were sent down into the 5A conference bracket with a week to prepare for their round one matchup. 

“We played against the number one team in the open. Yeah, we lost by 30 but I think we got better from that. I think we’re better in the long run for playing Perry” said Haman. 

Kelly got into rhythm at the beginning of the game. Within the first four minutes, Kelly had six quick points and finished the first half as the overall leading scorer with eleven. Kelly and Haman combined for 27 points in the second half as the Wildcats pulled away from the Coyotes.

As Willow Canyon attempted to pull away Galbreath, as he had been throughout his Coyote career, was Mr. do-it-all. He pulled down three of his 11 total rebounds late in the second half and chipped in seven of his 22 total points in the fourth quarter yet it wasn’t enough.

5A  Galbreath, Lopez, and Murphy are set to graduate as the last remnants of the 2022 state championship team for Centennial. 

For Willow Canyon, the Wildcats win a playoff game and advance to Elite Eight for only the second time in program history. After a 13-15 record in 2022-23 and 1-11 region mark, it’s the payoff for a unit that stuck through the adversity.

“Last year some of the losing, some of the injuries, some of the academic and character things we went through we told them it’s a multi-year process. And in this program we make them understand it’s about their individual sacrifice for the betterment of the program and at the end of the day that’s the only thing that matters” said Wildcat head coach Joseph Colletti.

That adversity reared its head after a 15-1 start to the season. The Wildcats dropped three consecutive region games coming out of a Christmas break that saw them win the annual Judy Dixon holiday tournament defeating Mountain Ridge, Poway (CA), Dysart, and Desert Edge.

Those losses and the region as a whole prepared the Wildcats to be in the position to be one of the final eight teams in the 5A conference.

“We think we’re in the toughest region in the state in 5A, the records might not be there but Sunrise Mountain was a defensive rebound away from this region having five of the final 16 teams. We did drop three straight but this group is resilient, we cleaned up a little bit of the mistakes and now we can say we’re one of the final eight teams left” said Colletti.