In the last couple decades, the love of basketball in the Navajo Nation and the unique brand of Rez ball played by its high school boys and girls basketball teams have become ubiquitous, certainly in Arizona and increasingly across the United States.

But there is another reservation and another fan base a couple hours south that seems to have developed a more concentrated, passionate and successful brand of Rez ball. Fans from other parts of the state may not know of it, but they tend to learn quickly after the first chants of “AL-CHE-SAY” from 5,000 to 6,000 people reverberate throughout the arena.

The Alchesay girls basketball team won its second straight 3A state title at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix Saturday, Feb. 25, beating Show Low 52-35. And for the second straight year at this new venue for the Falcons, seemingly half of the White Mountain Apache Tribe was in the building roaring their approval.

“It’s really amazing. It’s unbelievable how much people support us back home. We really want to get a lot of wins for them because we have a small Rez,” Alchesay junior guard Jazlyn Nosie said.

She’s right, unlike the massive Navajo Nation with five 3A-sized high schools in the same North Region with Alchesay – plus several smaller schools and more high schools in New Mexico – the Falcons really are the Tribe’s lone representative.

Just north of the reservation in Pinetop-Lakeside, Blue Ridge is the only likely nearby school with Apache players on its rosters, similar to the largely Navajo-led success stories of basketball in Holbrook, Page and Winslow.

Show Low is only 10 miles further north of Whiteriver than Pinetop, but had at most one or two players with Apache lineage on its girls team. The Cougars also did not have anywhere near the crowd size or lung capacity to try to match the Falcons’ faithful.

This was less of a problem for Window Rock in the semifinal the day before. The Lady Scouts brought at least 3,000 of their own fans to the coliseum and play in the 6,500-seat Bee Holdzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance,

“The crowd is so important. Our sixth man, the crowd, is so important to our success,” Coach Rick Sanchez said. “In the north they’ve got gyms that hold 10,000 so it’s nothing. But down here our team goes on a run and you have 6,000 people yelling at you, you get the shakes there.”

Show Low took a quick 6-0 lead, but then the Lady Falcons press on defense and ball movement of offense rolled over the Cougars like a Columbia Blue and Corn Pollen Yellow wave. Alchesay led 30-18 at halftime and 44-24 following three quarters.

Alchesay forced 24 turnovers, though Show Low forced 25. The Falcons, however, had a 24-8 advantage in points off turnovers.

The real difference was in the shots both teams took. The Falcons held Show Low to 12-49 (25 percent) from the field.

To Sanchez, Rez ball is going up and down the court at a fast pace but it doesn’t work enough because the teams don’t emphasize defense enough.

“I have this vision in my head of what a game’s supposed to be like. People call it Rez ball. My vision is Rez ball with defense. And what they did tonight is what I see in my head when I think of basketball. They did a tremendous job. Show Low is a tremendous team but we did not let them get into any kind of rhythm,” Sanchez said.

Like the schools in the Navajo Nation, Alchesay did not play basketball during the height of COVID-19 cases in the 2020-21 season.

The program won a 2A title in 2019 and moved up to 3A in 2020-21. In both years they've played in 3A, the girls claimed the crown at Veterans Memorial. Last year's 66-64 finals victory over Chinle in overtime was tougher.

“Our experience from being here last year helped us a lot. We knew what we had to do on the court. We just had to trust one another,” Jenieth Sanchez said.

Jenieth Sanchez lead all scorers with 18 points and tied Nosie for the team lead in rebounds (8) and steals (4).

While Show Low earned its finals spot, it almost was a break for the Falcons to not face yet another region rival.

The defending champs were the #8 seed in 3A, in large part because they finished 8-6 in North Region games to place third. Rivals Chinle and Window Rock joined Alchesay in the final four and none of them actually won the region. That banner went to a 10-2 Monument Valley team.

“We are battle tested. Those teams in the North is tough,” Rick Sanchez said.

The most likely team to prevent Alchesay from repeating appeared to be Monument Valley, which split with the Falcons in the regular season and beat them again in the finals of the region tournament. Then Chinle shocked the Mustangs in the quarterfinals.

Combined with Snowflake's first round upset of top seed Gilbert Christian and fellow North team Tuba City's first round upset of #4 Bourgade Catholic in the first round, plus Show Low's takedown of #3 Yuma Catholic all top four seeds were gone before the semifinals.

Window Rock (24-7) knocked off Tuba City and loomed as Alchesay's biggest threat. The Lady Scouts won both regular season meetings before the Falcons squeaked by 44-43 in the region tournament semifinal.

“Having the experience last year, the girls knew what it takes to win. And they’ve known it all year. We’ve had a big target on our backs all year. Every team played us like it was a championship game,” Rick Sanchez said.

And Window Rock brought a large crowd. Along with the crowds for Chinle's girls and Monument Valley's boys the attendance in the coliseum swelled to about 12,500. The total attendance for Friday's session was 13,100, higher than Saturday's finals.

The Lady Scots were the aggressors and took a 22-13 halftime lead.

“The first half we were scared, or I don’t know what it was,” Rick Sanchez said. “I chewed their butts out at halftime. I don’t yell much so when I do, they take it to heart.”

Alchesay turned up the defensive pressure and won the third quarter 14-4 to grab a 27-26 lead.

Jenieth Sanchez scored most of her 14 points in the second half as the Falcons pulled away for a 44-36 win.

“Those teams up north are pretty tough. They work in the offseason really hard and I know they’re always pushing it. They want it as much as we do,” Nosie said. “Every time they play us they’re ready to play. I play with most of them over the summer and I know most of them so I have a good chemistry with them.”

Jenieth Sanchez said the second state title was sweeter.

“Some people had some doubt in us, and we knew that if we worked together and had tough defense and communicated with one another, we were going to pull through,” she said.

The team plays in front of 3,800 at the Chief Alchesay Activity Center in Whiteriver.

So the state tournament is a chance for more members of the tribe a chance to flock to games at Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley and the Coliseum. Plus this is the time of year the hardscrabble community has a bit more to splash out.

“When it gets to the state level, then everybody in the town has to come. They love it. And it’s around tax return time so people have a little more money, and come to watch state,” Sanchez said.

The coach said the fan ban is very positive toward the girls even when they struggle, and picks them up. They are full of suggestions.

“There’s 6,000 or 8,000 coaches telling you what to do,” Sanchez said.

But there's also a coach bond with the coach that has now led three state champions.

Noise said everybody knows everybody in town and basketball is the most common connection. Nosie plays on a woman’s co-ed team.

She and the Lady Falcons inspire a lot of kids to want to play. And the basketball court provides a community largely living in difficult circumstances a chance to compete on equal footing.

“When they were in diapers, that’s how the fan base was. They’ve grown up with it, so it doesn’t matter. It’s just normal. Our gym holds 3,800 people and it’s packed,” Sanchez said.