Fourth quarter rally lifts Lady Mustangs over Ganado

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Dec 17, 2015 | Basketball |

BURNSIDE, Ariz.

There were some ill-advised passes that were mishandled early on.

Despite not being on the same page for much of Tuesday night’s contest, the Monument Valley Lady Mustangs came back from a double-digit deficit and overtook Ganado in the fourth quarter.

MV trailed Ganado by a 41-30 count after three quarters of play, but the Mustangs got a big-time performance from senior post Nizhoni Whitehorse in that final stanza to pull out an exciting 47-46 win at the Ganado Pavilion.

Whitehorse finished with a game-best 20 points and tallied the last of the Mustangs’ 11 points, which included a three-point shot from the top of the key.

“She has an outside game but we’ve been focusing on her inside game,” Monument Valley coach Sophia Parrish said of Whitehorse. “I was glad she took that (three-point) shot because that helped us get back into the game.”

Ganado head coach Mike Bitsuie attributed Tuesday’s loss to a lack of composure as the Hornets missed a bunch of shots from close range.

“We missed 14 layups,” he lamented. “That’s 28 points we left in the house.”

Other than a 13-point loss to Chinle during the Tournament of Champions, the Hornets have dropped four contests by a combined eight points.

“In all those games, we led the whole way until the end,” he said. “We have to figure out a way to make plays down the stretch. We have to respond when the other team heats up. It’s frustrating that we’re not finishing of games.”