Changing of the guard

GALLUP

The memories made on Friday night were a long overdue for the Miyamura girls basketball team.

Since joining New Mexico’s second largest school classification in 2010, the Lady Patriots had lost 16 consecutive games to city rival Gallup. But last Friday night, Miyamura (7-11, 1-1) finally got over the hump and used a fourth quarter run to post a 62-47 win over the Lady Bengals (8-9, 1-1).

“We got away from the emotions of this game,” said first-year Miyamura coach Henry Gettler, who later added that his team didn’t think about the significance of this contest until two days before last Friday night.

“We didn’t bring it up,” he said. “We didn’t talk about it. Everyday we just try to get better in practice. We didn’t make it a big game. At the end of the day, we are still 1-1 in the district and this doesn’t count for 10 wins.”

Gettler said they didn’t make this game any bigger than what it was.

“I think that was the key,” he said.

Going into the contest, the Miyamura coach said they didn’t do anything different to prepare for their rivals. The only thing they did, he said, was adapt to what Gallup was giving them.

“We adjusted to their 1-3-1 (defense) and we adjusted to the trap up at top,” he said.

For three quarters that scheme by Gallup worked as the Bengals trailed Miyamura 40-37 going into the fourth.

The floodgates, however, finally opened up for the Patriots as they went on a momentum-changing 16-3 run to start the last quarter.

Miyamura sophomore Tonya Tolino got that rally started with jumper before Gallup pulled within 42-40 on a three-point shot by senior guard Kalisha Kinsel with 7:48 left to go.

After that three-point shot by Gallup, it was all Miyamura for the next three-and-half minutes. Senior guard Sarah Gilmore and junior forward Lauryn Thomas combined for nine points with Gilmore putting in five of her game-best 20 points.

Thomas, who finished with 14 points, ended that run with a two-point bucket for a 56-40 cushion with 4:01 left in the game.

“We miscued on a lot of things, but anything else the girls did a good job,” Gallup coach Wilbert Nez said. “Unfortunately, we missed some layups and that’s costly.”

Those miscues, Nez said, were a result of “wanting it more.”

“They tried and they gave it everything they got, but I think we got flustered by overdoing it,” he said. “We overplayed each and every situation. Sometimes you can’t help that where you tried too hard. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

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