Final Four bound: Alchesay, Chinle, Window Rock girls advance

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz.

The Arizona 3A girls state basketball tournament got whittled down to four teams on Monday night.

The tournament started with 24 squads, with the 3A North Region getting seven members in. Three of those squads remain in the hunt for a state title with Alchesay, Chinle, and Window Rock advancing.

Of those teams, the Chinle Lady Wildcats (20-10 overall) pulled off one of the tournament’s biggest upsets in a wild finish at the Findlay Toyota Center before a near-capacity crowd.

The Wildcats battled back from a five-point deficit and scored the last nine points to post a 51-47 come-from-behind win over No. 2 seed Monument Valley.

“The girls played with their hearts today,” Chinle coach Francine McCurtain said. “There were moments where they could have gave up, but they didn’t want that. They didn’t let that faze them, and they made sure they stay in the game, and to me, it wasn’t really one person.”

The Chinle squad got contributions from everyone, as they had three key players in foul trouble. With that sophomore post Dizhoon White said it took a team effort to defeat its region rival.

“I knew we could do this,” White said. “We’ve been working hard for this, and we came out with the win.”

She played an integral part in the upset by coming up with seven points. On the defensive end, she deflected an in-bounds pass from MV with 10.3 seconds, resulting in a steal with her team up by two points.

“She really made a difference,” McCurtain said of her pupil.

Senior guard Temyra Bia led the Wildcats with 16 points as she capped a four-point swing during Chinle’s late rally.

With 2:02 left, White hit the front end of a two-foul shot, and on the miss, the Wildcats got the offensive board, and they swung the ball to Bia for her 3 that cut MV’s lead down to 47-46.

“I just felt really confident making the shot,” Bia said.

Chinle also got nine points each from senior Shaundiin Yazzie and sophomore Qoah Yazzie.

The Lady Mustangs got a game-best 17 points from senior guard Kierra Johnson while senior Tierra Sandoval and Keiryn Mann had nine points each.

MV finished the year at 22-7 overall.

Chinle will take on No. 6 Show Low in Friday’s semifinals as the Lady Cougars outlasted No. 3 Yuma Catholic by a 46-39 count.

Window Rock

A defensive lockdown in the second half put Window Rock in the driver’s seat in its quarterfinal matchup with Tuba City.

Trailing 22-21 at the break, the Scouts (24-6) held Tuba to eight points in the second half as it advanced with a 47-30 win.

“It just takes one stop,” Window Rock coach Gabrielle Whitney said. “That’s the great thing about this group of girls. When one person does it, everyone’s gonna want to do it.”

Considering how dangerous Tuba City is, the second-year coach said those stops were necessary.

“We have to play hard, aggressive defense because Tuba is a great team,” she said. “Offensively, they’re a great team. You know, they can attack, they can shoot, and I told the girls that we have to stop that, and we have to limit that.

“That’s exactly what they did,” she added.

Junior Melicia Nelson paced the Scouts with a game-best 21 points.

“I’m really excited for this team,” Nelson said. “We stuck together all the way through, and it’s just a great feeling going to the Final Four.”

Last season, the Scouts were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

“I don’t know how long it’s been for Window Rock to go to the Final Four, but these girls put in the hard work, their blood, their tears, and it showed,” Whitney said. “They’re aiming for that state championship, but I always tell the girls one game at a time. We can’t have a big head because all these teams left are gonna up their game.”

For Tuba City, sophomore Eriana Begay finished with 10 points. The Warriors ended the year at 17-13 overall.

Alchesay

A second-half surge put the Lady Falcons in the semifinals for the second year.

Alchesay used an 8-0 run midway through the third stanza and erased a one-point deficit for a 34-27 cushion heading into the fourth.

The Falcons carried that momentum into the final period for a 48-32 win over No. 16 Snowflake.

“I kept telling them to pick up the ‘D,'” Alchesay coach Rick Sanchez said. “If we play that press right, we can disrupt teams, but if we screw it up, then we’re pretty ugly.”

“We just had to work harder and smarter,” junior guard Jazlyn Nosie said. “Our defense comes first, and it was really good tonight. We wanted to trap the ball before stealing it.

“We wanted them to have second thoughts, and we were there to wherever they threw the ball,” she added. “We covered each spot to where they were thinking to go.”

In that offensive surge, Alchesay had four players score, with senior Jaylyn Nashio scoring six of her 11 points.

Early on, Nosie picked apart Snowflake’s defense as she put in 11 of her game-best 18 points in the opening half.

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