4A state playoffs: KC, Gallup girls to meet for fifth time in semis

ALBUQUERQUE – A fifth meeting between top-seed Kirtland Central and the No. 4 Gallup Lady Bengals is in the books.

The two state powerhouses advanced on Tuesday in the Class 4A state quarterfinals at the University of New Mexico’s Pit in Albuquerque.

“We knew we were probably gonna see them in the state tournament,” KC coach Devon Manning said following his team’s 50-34 win over No. 8 Los Lunas Valencia. “We’re seeing them a game earlier than what we thought, but we’re gonna have to play them anyway.

“It’s gonna be a tough one; it’s round five,” he added. “They’re gonna have their best, we got to have our best. We both bring the best out of each other when we face each other, so I’m expecting to have another very hard, grind-out ballgame.”

The two teams will square off at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Pit in one semi-final with the winner playing in Friday’s 4A championship game, which is slated for 7 p.m.

In the other half of the bracket, No. 7 Bloomfield dropped a 40-36 overtime decision to second seed St. Pius X in the semis.

Gallup (23-8) was the first team to set up the rematch but the Lady Bengals had to pull off some last-minute heroics to put away No. 5 seed Portales with a 66-56 win.

After trailing by as much as 17 points in the second quarter, Portales put together a few runs in the second half and led 52-51 with 5:23 left in the fourth stanza following a basket from junior point guard Angel Ornelas, who finished with 13 points.

The Bengals, however, closed out the game on a 15-4 run to put them in the state semifinals.

“I always tell the girls that it doesn’t matter if you win by one or 20 points,” Gallup coach Todd McBroom said. “I mean, they actually got ahead by one point and, you know, we battled back and we were able to overcome a lot of adversity.

“It’s how it works sometimes,” McBroom added. “It’s a game of runs.”

In the opening half Gallup was very effective in establishing its inside game with junior Rylie Whitehair and freshman Kayden Tsosie combining for 22 points.

Whitehair scored a dozen and Tsosie added 10 as the Bengals took a 36-23 advantage at halftime.

“We got some of the best post players in the state,” McBroom said. “I mean, that’s why they were first-team, all-district and they’re all very tough. They all bring a little bit something different to the table too.”

In the second half, though, the two post players saw some resistance as Whitehair put up eight points in the final two quarters and finished with a game-best 20 points. Tsosie, meanwhile, added two more points and finished with 12.

“In the first half, I noticed that they were not doubling me as much, so I had opportunities of going one-on-one,” Whitehair said. “But then in the second half they were doubling top and bottom. Every time I got the ball they were always on me.”

Portales coach Wade Fraze pointed out that they didn’t do anything different in defending Gallup’s interior players. Rather, it was doing what they were supposed to do.

“We just played better defense in the second half,” Fraze said. “I really don’t have post (players). I’ve got guards that play post because they’re taller and longer. We knew we were outsized, but these kids fought and scrapped even though we were manhandled inside.”

Behind a 21-point effort in the third stanza, Portales made the contest more interesting as it pulled within 47-44 entering the fourth.

“These kids never give up,” Fraze said of his team’s comeback. “They overcame a deficit that not many teams could against the defending state champs.

“Not many teams, seasoned or not, could have come back from what they did,” he added.

Juniors Myleigh Banda and Evannie Fulfer led Portales by putting up 15 and 14 points, respectively.

The Whitehair-Tsosie post combo headed the Gallup team while senior guard Adriell Thomas chipped in 11 points, with six coming in the last five minutes of the game.

“I just thought that we had to pick it up in order to move onto the next round,” Thomas said. “I just thought about playing with my team, thinking about pushing harder for them. We just had to have the right mindset.”

Kirtland Central

Behind a 12-1 outburst at the start of the second half, the Lady Broncos seized their largest lead at 32-13 when senior Keira Beall-Gleason scored on a putback with 3:43 left in the third.

The Valencia Lady Jaguars, however, never went away as the eighth-seeded team put together a 16-2 run to get within 34-29 with 7:19 left in the fourth quarter. That run was spearheaded by sophomore Jaiden Montgomery as she scored six of her team-best 14 points during that stretch.

“What really started that is we took a really bad deep three,” said Manning, the KC coach. “It killed our momentum and that picked up their momentum because I think they got a lot of rebounds and scored.

“The wheels came off us and were more in survival mode to get to the fourth quarter,” he continued. “They hit a three to begin with and they cut it to five but give coach (Raymond Montoya) credit. He made a good adjustment when it came to our press.”

Kirtland got back on track with a three-pointer from sophomore Haylee Nocki with just over seven minutes left.

Beall-Gleason then added five of her game-best 15 points to close out the contest.

Bloomfield

A state semifinal appearance by Bloomfield fell to the wayside as the St. Pius Lady Sartans prevailed in overtime by outscoring the Lady Bobcats 6-2 in the extra session.

Bloomfield led for all but 1:51 in regulation, but the Bobcats were forced into 24 turnovers with St. Pius scoring 23 points off turnovers.

“They did what they needed to do to win the game,” Bloomfield coach Brady Rivers said of the Albuquerque private school. “I give them more credit for doing what they needed to more than us necessarily falling apart

“That team won 19, 20 games in a row and they probably felt like they were really never really out of the game,” he added. “That actually showed up in overtime.”

Senior post Danielle Johnson, who managed most of the ball-handling duties for the Bobcats, went full court at a potential game-winning layup in regulation.

“I saw the lane on the opposite side and I tried to shift the girl over so I can make a clear path to try and make a layup,” said Johnson, who finished with a game-best 16 points.

In addition to Johnson, the Bobcats also received 12 points from senior Aliya Quintana.

For St. Pius, senior guard Alyssa Mays had a team-best 14 points and junior post Macy Freeze added 10.

Earlier this season, the St. Pius defeated Bloomfield 44-24 during the Hope Christian tournament in mid-January.

“Right now hurts,” Rivers said. “It should hurt because the ladies put a lot of work into it, but later they’ll sit back and realize we had a really good season.”

Bloomfield finished the year at 19-10 overall.

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