Rez ball to ramp up in Glendale this weekend with possible record crowds

Get ready for the experience of a lifetime.

Friday, at Glendale's Gila River Arena, the Arizona Interscholastic Association could see a record crowd for the 3A basketball semifinals.

Why?

Four girls teams that represent the Navajo Nation -- No. 1 Ganado, No. 2 Kayenta Monument Valley, No. 3 Page and No. 2 Fort Defiance Window Rock -- will bring so many fans off of the nation's largest reservation that there could be more than 16,000 fans.

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Reservation basketball is a religion, and people will travel any lengths to see games, especially when the stakes are raised so high. It doesn't matter if it is boys or girls games. These children represent them. They give them hope and joy in some of the most remote areas in the country. And when the teams win, they win.

Gila River seats 18,300 for basketball.

According to the AIA archives, the largest high school basketball crowd is 16,010 -- a tie between the 1996 big-schools boys state championship game between Phoenix Shadow Mountain and Tempe Corona del Sol and the 2000 3A boys basketball final between Tuba City and Whiteriver Alchesay.

The two girls 3A semifinals Friday:

No. 2 Window Rock vs. No. 3 Page at Gila River Arena, 2:30 p.m.

No. 1 Ganado vs. No. 12 Monument Valley at Gila River Arena, 6 p.m.

MORE: AIA boys and girls basketball state tournament scores, schedule

If Winslow and Chinle meet in Friday's 4:15 boys semifinal, that just might push it over the top for the record.

No. 6 Chinle plays No. 19 Wickenburg and No. 2 Winslow plays No. 7 Florence on Tuesday in Prescott Valley in boys quarterfinals.

The last semifinal on Friday at Gila River Arena starts at 7:45 and will involved either a White Mountains team (No. 1 Lakeside Blue Ridge), two Tucson teams (No. 8 Sabino and No. 12 Empire) or a Valley school (No. 4 Chandler Valley Christian).

By then, the place will probably look empty compared to what could be all-day bedlam.

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To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert.