Winslow girls nail 17 treys in win over Ganado

WINSLOW

Winslow coach Jerron Jordan has some deep digging to do.

The longtime girls basketball coach was surprised with the number of treys his team hit on Thursday night.

The 12th-seeded Lady Bulldogs nailed 17 from beyond the arc to score a 75-57 win over No. 21 Ganado in the opening round of the 3A state playoffs.

Winslow improved its record to 18-10 overall.

“I didn’t know that we hit that many,” Jordan said. “I think that’s a school record, to be honest. I have to double check the archives on that one.

“If it’s not a school record, it’s pretty close,” he added.

With the 18-point win, Winslow advances into the next round, playing at fifth-seed Window Rock at 7 p.m. tonight.

“That is gonna be a tough one up there,” Jordan said. “We played each other earlier in the year, and we’re looking forward to a great game.”

In Thursday night’s win, senior Shaelene Singer started the barrage of 3s by nailing three early ones as she put Winslow up 11-0 with 6:08 left in the opening quarter.

“Knowing that it was my last time playing in this gym played a huge factor in the way I played,” said Singer, who finished with a game-best 21 points and five treys. “I just wanted to come in here and win big.”

First-year Ganado coach Tom Toadecheenie said the 3s by Winslow made it a tough night even though they did pull within 23-19 on a trey by senior Kiyarra Curtis with four minutes left in the second quarter.

“We’ve covered this over and over, and we studied their game,” Toadecheenie said. “Winslow obviously took us by surprise with the way they came out shooting, so we had to shift our game.”

Despite some adjustments, the 3s kept coming as Winslow capped the first half with four more treys for a 35-25 halftime cushion, with freshman guard Taylin Puhuhefvaya putting in two.

As the third quarter went, the Bulldogs continued its hot shooting from long range, with freshman Kaitlyn Belone hitting four early treys in the second half.

“Much credit to Ganado,” Jordan said. “They played hard, and we knew they weren’t going anywhere, but we got hot again from the outside.”

Belone added one more trey in the fourth and tied Singer with five made 3s for 18 points.

Junior Jaci Gonnie and Puhuhefvaya made three treys each, with Gonnie scoring 17 points and Puhuhefvaya chipping in nine.

With the visiting Lady Hornets focusing on Gonnie and Singer, Jordan said it allowed his true freshmen players to score.

“They got hot, and I think that opened up Jaci and Shae’s game,” he said. “At that point, we had five kids truly score, and that is what we always preach.”

For Ganado, junior Sheena Smith finished with 20 while freshman Jasah McIntosh added 14, and sophomore Faith James chipped in 10.

The Hornets finished the year with an 8-17 record, and Toadecheenie will lose six seniors. Nonetheless, he feels optimistic about next season as he returns a bevy of underclassmen who got varsity experience.

“Although we didn’t start on track, we finished with a good season,” Toadecheenie said. “We worked on the stuff we needed to do, and we invested a lot of time in that.

“Imagine where that investment is going to take us if we keep going at the rate of what we’re doing,” he said. “My goal is to keep that going, and we’re looking to have a big season next year.”

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