Lady Chieftains roll past Farmington

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With the opening games of District 1-4A basketball postponed last week due to weather, the Shiprock Lady Chieftains, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, bided their time as they waited to begin.

And did they begin.

The Lady Chieftains, 15-4 overall and 1-0 in District 1-4A, put an exclamation point on their district opener, rolling past Farmington (1-12, 0-1) for an 80-45 victory.

"We had to get our legs back," Lady Chieftain Tessa Begay said. "We were off for a couple of days.

"Our defense helped us win," she said. "It feels good to come back."

The Lady Chieftains opened on an 8-2 run, but Farmington battled back behind Patience Benally, who had 13 points on the night.

Benally iced two critical treys in the first quarter to take the momentum away from the Lady Chieftains. Lady Scorpion Mariah Lewis then found herself open for an easy layup on the back side and Farmington had the game tied 10-10.

After Mishauna Todacheenie put Shiprock back up with a short jumper, Benally went back into action for Farmington and with two seconds remaining in the first period, iced her third three-pointer to give the Lady Scorpions the advantage by one, 13-12.

Then the Lady Chieftains decided to change things.

After being stalemated by the Lady Scorpions' defense on the perimeter, the Lady Chieftains decided to drive inside and keep driving.

"We knew Farmington would come with their best shot," said Shiprock coach Brady Rivers. "We knew we had to come ready to play."

Rivers said he told the girls to keep pushing, to keep the pace up and see if Farmington could stay with the pace for all four quarters.

What happened was an 11-0 run and some strong rebounding that put the Lady Chieftains ahead. Although Shiprock led the rest of the way, Farmington made runs cutting the lead significantly during the rest of the second quarter.

However, foul trouble cost the Lady Scorpions as they put Shiprock at the free-throw line where the Lady Chieftains were 11 of 14.

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Shiprock scored just 6 points from the field in the quarter. It didn't hurt the Lady Chieftains that Tessa Begay came off the bench to score eight of their last 11 points in the second quarter.

Shiprock continued to push and drive the lane the rest of the night, outscoring Farmington 23-14 in the third. Shiprock took advantage of Farmington's foul trouble as well, making 25 of their 34 free throw attempts.

"We got to the free-throw line a lot," Rivers said.

During the fourth quarter, Shiprock took it to a higher level and the ball stayed near the exit (on Shiprock's side) for almost eight minutes.

Every time Farmington tried to cross the half-court line, Shiprock was there to take away the ball.

Rivers joked that it seemed like the fourth quarter was played on their half of the court.

Begay scored seven more points late in the fourth quarter for a game-high 15 points.

"I just wanted to be able to help my team," Begay said.

Shiprock ended the game with 10 of 11 players scoring, with four players in double digits including Begay, Todacheenie (13), Arnetia Begay (12), Courtney Benally (11) and Christina Yazzie (9).

No. 1 Shiprock faces rival No. 2 Kirtland Central Saturday at the Chieftain Pit in Shiprock.

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