The trend line for the Patagonia High School basketball season was one of a steady upward climb.
Both girls and boys teams overcame shaky starts to achieve a measure of success greater than the previous year.
For the Lobo girls, who lost three of their first four games, it was qualifying for the 1A State Tournament for the first time since 2016. For the boys, it was recovering from six consecutive losses in November to qualify for the 1A Tucson Southeast/Northwest Super Regional.
Postseason play ended with first-round losses for both teams, but both teams could point to noteworthy improvement.
The Patagonia girls were seeded 14th in the state tournament and suffered a 51-30 first-round loss to third-seeded Fort Thomas on Feb. 6. Emma Lewton led the Lobos with 11 points, Brianna Majalca scored six and Jenny Vasquez added five.
The Lobos finished with an 11-6 record in games factored into the state rankings and 14-10 overall. They were challenged by a difficult schedule. They were one of five teams from the 1A Tucson Southeast Region to qualify for the state playoffs. Region rival St. David went on to win the 1A state title and finish with a 27-2 overall record.
The Lobos will be losing three senior starters: Jenny Vasquez, Heaven Day and Janelle Valenzuela. But they have two key building blocks in sophomores Lewton and Majalca. Lewton earned second-team all-region honors, while Majalca, Vasquez and Day all earned honorable mention.
The Patagonia boys finished with a 13-14 overall record and 10-7 in games factored into the rankings—a three-win improvement over 2023. Their season ended with an 80-31 loss to Desert Christian in the Super Regional on Feb. 1. Leo Nunez had 10 points and Arturo Magallanes scored nine in the loss.
Coach Nate Porter acknowledged that the Lobos were in over their heads in the Super Regional, which featured three of the top four 1A teams in the state—eventual champion The Gregory School, and state semifinalists Desert Christian and Baboquivari.
“It was a brutal super regional this year,” Porter said. “Those three teams were way better than anybody in 1A basketball.”
Porter was most pleased with the steady growth shown by the Lobos throughout the regular season, which included five victories in their final six games and a third-place finish in the Tucson Southeast Region.
“The team goal was to make the Super Regional,” he said. “We knew we had to keep getting better to get there, and we did that. We’d like to have had a better performance in our last game of the year, but as a whole, we overachieved our individual talent level. It’s a good statement for the team.”
The boys lose four seniors from this year’s team. Nunez was second-team all-region and Magallanes earned honorable mention, but the strength of the team was its depth, and Porter sees a promising future.
“Our goal is to continue to get even better,” he said. “Six kids who are juniors will be coming back, and we had some freshmen and sophomores get their feet wet.”
Returning for their senior seasons next year will be two players who earned all-conference honorable mention—leading scorer Diego Carranza and DJ Castro—along with Johnny Fields, Enoch Sedam, Sebastian Padilla and Gabe Nunez. Younger players who will be counted on to continue their development are 6’2” sophomore Gavin Arbizo and 6’2” freshman Kannon Shore, who showed significant improvement as the season went on.
“[Shore] has got a great shot,” Porter said. “He’s got room to get taller and stronger, and he knows that. If he does, he can really be something.”
Porter said the offseason routine will include weight training, a skill development program and summer league competition in Tucson.
“I hope to see them putting in the work,” he said.