Native American basketball showcased in NABI finals

After nearly a week’s worth of tournament play for 196 teams, the Native American Basketball Invitational finished Saturday at Footprint Center with the girls' and boys' championship games.

In the girls' final, both teams were looking to claim their second NABI championship title. Arizona’s Rezbombers won the title in 2018 and were facing last year’s champions, Oklahoma’s Legendary Elite.

The Rezbombers prevented the Oklahoma team from reaching a back-to-back title with a dominant 68-40 win. Rezbombers’ Sydney Benally took home the MarJon Beauchamp MVP trophy, after leading all scorers with 21 points, 16 of which came in the first half.

MarJon Beauchamp — the MVP’s namesake — is the official NABI ambassador. The Milwaukee Bucks drafted the 6-foot-7 forward in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft (no. 24 overall).

Benally had just recently graced the court in Phoenix earlier this year. The New Mexico girls' Gatorade player of the year played at the Section 7 basketball tournament in State Farm Stadium earlier this summer with her high school. She was a major reason Sandia High School had a 20-point win over Phoenix’s Xavier Prep.

Currently, she is ranked 143 nationally. The MVP took to the mic after the game with one message.

“I just want to give glory to God,” Benally said. “...I don’t know. It’s God’s plan. But hopefully I’ll get to play in college.”

Benally played every minute up until the last when she was subbed out with a comfortable 30-point lead. Her presence on the scoreboard was undeniable, but it was her smaller contributions that elevated her play on the court. She had an assist to nearly every one of her teammates in her 29 minutes of play. She led the Rezbombers on defense and only allowed Legendary Elite’s lead scorer Mattie Bell 13 points.

NABI boys basketball final

The boys' final was between Oklahoma’s Cheyenne Arapaho and Minnesota’s Lower Sioux.

The Oklahoma team beat the Lower Sioux 56-50 with most of the points coming in the second half.

Both teams struggled to get on the scoreboard in the first half. Shots were open, but they couldn’t seem to fall. Cheyenne Arapaho went into halftime up 22-18.

The lead switched throughout the game, but no team led by more than six points at any time. Lower Sioux’s Dominic Fairbanks tried to bring his team the win. He finished the game with 25 points — 13 that came in the last 10 minutes of play. It could have gotten out of reach when Daniel Creeping Bear hit back-to-back 3s to make it a two-possession game with mere minutes left until the buzzer sounded, but Fairbanks answered the call each time with a 3 of his own.

A few crucial turnovers, ill-timed fouls and missed put backs iced the game. Cheyenne Arapaho won, and Daniel Creeping Bear was named MVP after finishing the game with 14 points.

When asked how it felt to leave national champions, Creeping Bear kept it simple.

“Feels good,” he said to the fan-filled stands.

What did it take to walk out victorious? Another quick answer. “Everything,” he said. He finished his two-sentence speech telling those in the arena that Cheyenne Arapaho is going to “bring it back next year.”

Basketball a uniting force for many Native Americans

The finals saw thousands of fans poured into Footprint Arena seats, some wearing their team’s apparel, some young fans donning a familiar Caitlin Clark Iowa jersey. But some fans weren’t there to cheer any team on. Many fans had no relation to either team. Some fans had no relation to any team.

They were there all in the name of basketball — of great Native American basketball.

Samuel Kalka, 65, and Kathy Isk, 66, sat halfway up the first level of Footprint Center, their gaze fixed on Benally.

“I can’t believe she’s hitting those,” Kalka said after watching Benally drain a fourth 3.

Kalka had no family on any team in the tournament. He and Isk live 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix in Gila River.

It was a pretty normal Saturday for them. They were sitting in their living room watching TV. On the screen was the NABI tournament. Kalka looked over to Isk and thought, why are we watching this on TV when we could go watch in person. Neither of them had ever set foot inside the Suns and Mercury area. But Saturday was the day. All in the name of basketball, great Native American basketball.

“We weren’t doing nothing besides watching TV,” Kalka said about his decision to watch in-person.

They were there to watch the sport they love with the people they love.

“It’s a native thing really,” Isk said.

Kalka said community like that is common. They show up to an event not knowing anyone and they leave realizing they knew almost everyone. Kalka and Isk’s attention shifted. They watched Beauchamp at the base of the arena stairs taking photos with fans and signing T-shirts. The line for a picture with the Bucks player traveled from the floor, up the stairs and into the main concourse.

To the side of Beauchamp, a familiar sight, but an unrecognizable team. New Zealand’s Aotearoa Maori performed a haka — a traditional Maori dance. Basketball was the common thread that intertwined a Gatorade player of the year, a couple from 30 minutes down the road, an NBA player and a group of boys from a different hemisphere.

“Basketball is all we got out there,” Isk said.

Eryn Roman Nose and Neveah Sage played for Oklahoma’s Cheyenne Arapaho and made it to the Elite Eight. Sage, 18, played in Phoenix at the tournament each year since her sophomore year of high school.

“I look forward to it every year because I get to see all kinds of Natives from different places and see how they play,” Sage said.

Roman Nose said basketball unites the people in her town. She echoed the exact sentiment that Kalka and Isk said, “Basketball is the only thing we got out there.”

Year after year many of the same communities dedicate a week from their summer to embrace the sweltering Phoenix heat for a shot at a NABI national title. Because it’s worth it. Basketball is worth it.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Native American basketball showcased in NABI finals