Diné Bombers make easy work of Team 928 in title game

FORT DEFIANCE

Despite a slight hiccup in the title game, the Diné Bombers lived up to its expectation during the 2025 Road to NABI High School Basketball Tournament last week.

The elite squad of New Mexico prep players along with Chinle’s Dizhoon White ran the tables in the nine-team girls tournament.

In Sunday’s championship game, the Diné Bombers were challenged early by Team 928 before they pulled away with a 92-57 win at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance.

“We pride ourselves with our defense,” Diné Bombers coach Brian Kaye said of the key that led to their runaway win.

Still, there were some concerns after Team 928, which consists of Arizona’s 3A North players, made the game interesting by expunging an 11-0 deficit and tied the game at 14-all with 13 minutes in the opening half.

That minor gaffe was corrected immediately as the Kaye-coached team closed out the half on a 36-10 run. That scoring spurt opened a 50-24 halftime cushion.

“Sometimes they get a little lackadaisical,” Kaye said of his squad. “Sometimes they have a tendency to overlook teams, thinking about the win before we get there.

“I had to call a timeout and reiterate to them defense, defense, defense,” he added. “If someone shoots, we can’t have everybody just standing there watching. We have to work.”

Tournament MVP Sydney Benally agreed as she helped usher in renewed sense of urgency for the defending champions.

“As a team, we know that our defense helps us get easy buckets, so that was what we had to focus on,” Benally said. “That is what we want to bring for every game. Yes, we care about our offense, but we care more about our defense.”

Benally, who finished with a game-high 32 points, was also awarded the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award.

“I think I value the girls sportsmanship award even more because as a basketball player I’m humbled and I respect the game,” she said.

The tournament in Fort Defiance was Benally’s last time playing for the Kaye-coached team as she is set to report with the BYU women’s basketball program on June 9. She played for Kaye over the past two summers.

“I just love playing Native ball,” Benally said. “It’s a different type of intensity, different pace, it’s run-and-gun and I love it.”

As for playing at the next level, the 2025 Sandia High graduate is looking forward to the next chapter in her life.

“It’s what I’ve worked for,” she said. “All the sacrifices that I made and all the sacrifices that my family made has paid off. I’m excited about playing college ball.”

Of the 32 points she scored, Benally put in 22 in the first half. In the second half Kjani “Bam-Bam” Anitielu picked up the scoring slack by putting up 15 of her 24 points.

“I think we just kind of slacked off there at the beginning,” Anitielu said. “But we didn’t like panic because we trust one another, and we trust our coach, so we stayed composed and we just played the game.”

By limiting Team 928 to one shot and getting in transition, Anitielu says the were able to speed up the game.

“It’s just how we run and that’s the way the Native tournaments plays,” Anitielu said. “It’s just a run-and-gun game, but what’s cool about is we have girls that can run the floor. Our bigs can run, too,”

Kirtland Central’s Ally Tsosie also played an active role in the Diné Bombers dominance. The KC freshman finished with 15 points, including a dozen in the opening half.

“I feel like we did a good job on both sides,” Tsosie said. “The defense translated into offense. We just picked full court and we got back up.”

The Kaye-coached team also received 13 points from Chinle’s White while Gallup’s Kayden Tsosie added six.

“Honestly, we have a great group of girls, and we know what our strengths are with Sydney, Ally and Bam-Bam,” Kayden Tsosie said. “We used what we had and with good teamwork and rebounding we extended our lead.”

Team 928 was led by Page’s Jayla Franklin as she finished with 13 points while Ganado’s Faith James and Jasah McIntosh chipped in 10 and eight, respectively.

“We started the game slow, and we were down 11-0 at the beginning,” Team 928 coach Freeland Jishie said. “We tied the game at 14-14 but we through a drought. I called a timeout to try and get the girls back into the game.”

It didn’t help that Chinle graduate Qoah Yazzie sat out for most of the contest with a nail injury. Yazzie ended up with five points.

“She broke off her nail and that kind of disrupted our team,” Jishie said. “But (the Diné Bombers) are an explosive team. They went on that big run on us.”

Despite falling short, the Team 928 coach was pleased with his team’s tournament run.

“All of our girls are from the 3A North, and we had a good tournament,” Jishie said. “I’m very proud of these girls. They played well and we came up with two losses to the Diné Bombers, so our girls did pretty good.”

Jishie is going to use the same girls from the Fort Defiance tournament for the upcoming 6th Annual Native Junior Nationals that is scheduled for June 27-29 and the NABI tournament that is slated for July 22-26. Both tournaments will be played in the Phoenix-metro area.

“With the girls that we have, we have high expectations,” Jishie said. “We have the confidence with these girls. They are high caliber players and a lot of them have signed or committed with different (collegiate) teams.

“Hopefully, we can make a deep run at Nationals and the NABI tournament,” he added.

 

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