Bobcats bounce back to win Richardson

SHIPROCK

Almost nothing was going to stop the Bloomfield High School Lady Bobcats from winning the Jerry Richardson Memorial Tournament.

The Bobcats played five games in four days, suffered a loss, and bounced back to defeat district foes Farmington in the championship game 42-38.

Bloomfield head coach Tom Adair said his team was determined to fulfill a goal they set when the season started.

“The win is very good for us,” he said. “One of our goals is to win each tournament. We’ve got this tournament, then the next one is Los Lunas, then Hope Christian, then the district tournament, then state, and our goal is to win it; that’s what they put all the hard work in for.”

Bloomfield first defeated Shiprock on Tuesday night 48-35, then Newcomb in the first round of the tournament 49-26 and then traveled back to Bloomfield to suffer a 54-40 loss to Los Lunas, then defeated Piedra Vista in the semifinals of the tournament 48-41 before meeting Farmington.

Bloomfield didn’t exactly come out strong in the championship game. Farmington took the lead but halfway through, the Bobcats stole it to lead 10-6 after one quarter. Both teams battled it out in the second quarter tying the game a number of times before Farmington took back the lead and led 17-16 at the half.

Adair said he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game from the beginning.

“They’ve (Farmington) got sharp shooters, they have good size, and they’re very athletic, and they’re basketball players,” he said. “He’s (Farmington coach Brady Rivers) got basketball players who understand the game.”

But Bloomfield came out strong in the second half and tied the game 19-19 before making an 8-0 run to close the third quarter with the 25-19 lead.

Farmington, who made a habit of bouncing back in the final minutes of the games throughout the tournament, chipped away at Bloomfield’s lead.

With a three-point basket by senior Brianna Charley, Farmington tied the game 34-34 with two minutes left. Bloomfield went on another 8-0 before closing in on the win.

Rivers said his team came up short but it wasn’t because they weren’t capable.

He said they weren’t ready for the situation that arose because he didn’t prepare them.

“I told them that this loss wasn’t on them, it was on me because I hadn’t prepared them in practice for situations like this one, so they don’t need to have their heads down. I’m the one that should be fixing that, so we’ll be back better prepared next time when we get into something like that,” Rivers said.

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