Chinle girls take home tournament

CHINLE

It took awhile for the Chinle High girls’ basketball team to shake off the Valley Lady Pirates.

The Lady Wildcats held Valley to only four points in the fourth quarter to secure a 61-47 win in the championship game of the Coca Cola Classic on Saturday night at the Wildcat Den.

“We clamped down on defense and we bodied up on them,” said Chinle coach Pete Butler, whose team improved to 8-2 overall. “My instruction was to get as close as you can and don’t give any open shots and make sure all their shots were contested.”

According to Butler, they did that to Tuba City the night before to reach the finals, and it worked dividends for them in the finals as they held a good Valley team 32 points below what they were averaging during the three-day tournament.

“Usually the first two quarters have been real tight but our conditioning comes in for us,” Butler said. “One of the things are coaches noticed tonight that our big girls were outrunning our guards tonight.”

Those post players were a great value to the Chinle team as senior post Kalli Hunter and Cailey Lujan combined for 26 points with Hunter scoring 15. Senior guard Shania Yazzie added 13 points.

Besides scoring buckets in transition inside, Hunter also hit two treys in the opening quarter to pace Chinle to a 17-14 advantage.

As for Lujan she scored all her 11 points in the second quarter as Chinle gained a 33-31 halftime edge.

“She is one of our quiet scorers,” Butler said of Lujan. “She’s a beast and she is very coachable. The thing I like about her is her energy. She is one of our top rebounders coming off the bench and she’s starting to be one of our top scorers coming off the bench.”

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