Lady Eagles end season with pride

There is no question the Navajo Prep girls' basketball team is headed in the right direction.

After a bruising non-district schedule, the Lady Eagles limped into the District 1-2A season with an 8-10 record, which included two lopsided losses to Class 4A powerhouse Kirtland Central.

In conference play things, however, didn't change any as they finished third behind league leaders Navajo Pine and Rehoboth.

Still, Prep got invited to the big dance and garnered the No. 14 seed and made an unexpected run through the Class 2A tournament as they ousted No. 3 seed Tularosa with a 47-36 win in last Friday's opening round.

On Tuesday morning, the Eagles almost pulled off another upset as they took Navajo Pine down to the wire before falling 56-55 on a put-back by Lady Warrior Demetria Clichee with one second to go.

"I am very proud of my girls," said Lady Eagle coach Rainy Crisp. "You know we came out, we fought and we played hard. With the history that we have with Navajo Pine, I think we gave them a game they didn't expect because my girls never gave up.

"Of course a loss like this is very hard because we really wanted this win," she added. "But at the same time we have nothing to hang our heads because we battled all the way through and the outcome could have definitely gone either way."

Crisp said Tuesday's performance was very different from their last meeting with 'Pine as the Warriors ran away with a 66-50 win in the district tournament last month.

After that 16-point loss, the long-time 'Prep coach said, "We've been mainly focusing on our defense and I think we've tightened it up a bit.

"Against Tularosa, defense and rebounding was what won the game for us," she added, "and coming down, here our defense was exactly where we left off at Tularosa so we've come a long way since we last played Navajo Pine."

For 32 minutes, 'Prep got enough stops to keep it close and at one point they grabbed a 40-32 edge on a layup by junior Heather Rogers, who finished with a team-high 24 points and 8 rebounds.

"We definitely stepped it up," Rogers said. "We really wanted this win and I think we showed that by playing good defense."

Besides Rogers, the Eagles also got big contributions from sophomore guard Nakisha Antonio as she finished the game with 14 points while Brianna Kee chipped in 8 points including two treys. One of those treys gave 'Prep a 55-54 edge with 19 seconds left in the game.

Unfortunately for Kee and company, the lead changed hands as Clichee grabbed a missed three-point attempt and nailed the game-winning shot with one second left.

Still, Crisp said there are more positives that came out of the game as 'Prep has no seniors on the team.

"There had to be a winner and a loser and unfortunately we came out on the losing side this year," she said. "More than anything we'll definitely learn from this for next year."

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