Arizona Christian honoring West Valley HS basketball champs during national tournament
Arizona Christian men's basketball faces Saint Katherine out of California at home Friday at 6 p.m. in the first round of the NAIA Tournament.
It is the second year in a row that ACU is host of the first two rounds.
At 3 p.m. Friday, Antelope Valley of California (26-4) plays Indiana's Huntington (21-9), followed by ACU (23-7) against Saint Katherine (23-8).
ACU coach Jeff Rutter said that the West Valley high school boys champions — 4A Glendale Deer Valley, 5A Glendale Ironwood and 6A Peoria Liberty — will be honored at the Firestorm game.
This is the 10th national tournament for ACU, which lost in the quarterfinals last year and in the semifinals in 2022.
The Firestorm are 11-8 in NAIA tournament games in their history.
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ACU won the Golden State Athletic Conference, which is considered one of the NAIA's toughest and most respected leagues, for the fourth consecutive year. That hasn't happened since 2006 by Azusa Pacific, where Rutter was an assistant coach.
"We are excited to be hosting again this year," Rutter said. "This has been a fun group as we've pretty consistently improved over the course of the season. It seems like the past few weeks, we've started to settle into roles and figure some things out.
"We knew it would take some time with many new guys and our returners moving into new roles and we've seen click and hope to continue to build on that."
Some of the standouts are former Sunnyslope state champion Paul Hayden (2023 All-American), Dennis Flowers (2024 All-GSAC) and former Ironwood state champion Trent Hudgens (2024 All-GSAC).
Rutter has built national success with local talent.
In a 96-77 win over Vanguard two weeks ago that secured ACU's fourth consecutive conference regular-season championship, former Ironwood stars Hudgens (23 points) and Dominic Gonzalez (11 points) played key roles, as well as Hayden (9 points).
Former Surprise Shadow Ridge standout Anthony Garza and Peoria Centennial player Emery Young have also impacted ACU's season, Rutter said.
ACU has been ranked in the top 25 nationally in the last 32 polls, which is the second-longest streak in NAIA. The Firestorm spent most of this season ranked in the Top 10.
"It's a tough draw, though everyone is very good at this point in the year," Rutter said of his first-round opponent. "Saint Katherine, Antelope Valley and Huntington are each very talented, well-coached teams. It will make for a fun weekend of games."
The winners face each other at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at ACU.
The winner of that advances to the final 16 in Kansas City.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Christian to honor West Valley hoops champs during tournament
