Chinle girls take care of business in home tournament
CHINLE
Playing before its home crowd, the Chinle girls basketball team upped its record to 5-1 overall after capturing the Choice Broadband Classic tournament.
The Lady Wildcats defeated the Valley Lady Pirates, 56-45, in the tourney finale with head coach Francine McCurtain utilizing every player on her roster en route to the team title.
“We were able to capitalize on what we wanted to do in this tournament,” McCurtain said. “We played three games and the girls got a lot of playing time.”
The Wildcats used a 17-0 run at the start of the second half in Saturday’s title game to open up a 51-29 cushion before coasting the rest of the way.
“We were a little more patient on the offensive side, and we tighten up our defense,” McCurtain said of the adjustments they made. “We had to make sure that we were playing smart.”
Despite taking an 11-point lead in the middle of the second stanza, McCurtain felt that they were rushing their shots and that allowed the Lady Pirates to pull within 34-29 at the break.
That halftime pep talk, however, changed their mindsets as Chinle put some distance between them and the Pirates at the start of the third quarter.
“We came out strong and we didn’t look back,” McCurtain said.
With that, the Chinle coach went deep into her bench to give the reserves an opportunity to play.
“It was a good learning experience for the younger group,” McCurtain said. “As we move forward, hopefully we’ll get stronger and stronger, but I know we’ll have some setbacks.
“We just need to learn how to bounce back from them,” she added.
Nine players got onto the scorebook with sophomore forward Qoah Yazzie leading the attack with 13 points. Senior guard Temyra Bia and sophomores Jayden Lynch and Dizhoon White added eight points each.
For Valley, 5-foot-2 junior guard Kaelynn Nez pumped in a game-best 23 points as she was named the tournament’s MVP.
“She’s been scoring in the 40s in like every single game,” Valley coach Dorothy Mitchell said of Nez. “She’s so passionate about basketball and it’s amazing what she can do with her size.”
Nez put in 15 of those points in the opening half to keep Valley within striking distance. Nevertheless, Chinle changed the complexion of the game with its defense.
“They pressured us and we’re not used to that kind of pressure,” Mitchell said. “We have five press breakers that we’ve been working on, but we just didn’t use them.”
The game on Saturday night was the second of two meeting between the two clubs as Chinle opened the tournament with a 65-34 win over Valley last Thursday night.
“They blew us out in that first game and this time we kept it close,” Mitchell said. “We kind of held our own because that team over is a good team. They can shoot inside and outside, so they’re tough.”
Despite coming up short, Mitchell was pleased with the way her girls played as they went 4-2 in the tournament. The Pirates earned wins over Red Mesa, Ganado and Many Farms, playing the latter team twice.
“We played a lot of games and we’re tired, but I think their confidence level is up,” she said.
The Valley coach is hoping that will carry over into 2A North Region play as the Pirates opened conference play with Round Valley. Scores for that contest were not available at press time.
“We haven’t set any goals yet, but we want to make the playoffs,” Mitchell said. “I have a young team and it’ll be interesting to see what we come up with at the end of the season.”