Gallup avenges loss to KC with runaway victory

GALLUP

The Gallup boys’ basketball team was up to the task of avenging a four-point loss to Kirtland Central earlier this year on April 22.

The Bengals used a couple of runs in the second quarter to gain a 25-point cushion at the half before winning 78-52 as Gallup had eight players score in this must-win district contest.

Junior guard Joaquin Ortega led the charge with 24 points while seniors Jeffrey Yazzie and Brad Lynch added 14 each.

With the 26-point win, Gallup is assured the district crown if they can close out the rest of the regular season undefeated.

“I think that’s just the maturity of our guys that have been here four years with me,” Gallup coach Joshua Dunlap said of their relentless performance. “They know it’s all about attitude and if we play with 100 percent attitude and 100 percent energy we’re hard to beat.”

Dunlap said the intensity of the home crowd made a difference as the April 9 game at Kirtland Central was played without fans due to San Juan County’s yellow code pandemic status.

“I thought it would be different today,” Dunlap said. “I’m glad that it went that way because at Kirtland that looked like a team that I didn’t know.”

As for last Thursday’s contest, the Gallup coach said their performance is something that he’s been “excited about” for the past couple of seasons, as the Bengals scored in different ways.

Gallup ended the first quarter on a 12-3 run with junior Kohanon Atazhoon scoring four points while junior guard Darvell Skeet added a trey and Ortega completed an old-fashion three-point play for a 20-11 advantage.

“We played with a different mentality,” Ortega said. “The last time we played them it was like a fluke and tonight we got rebounds, we made clutch shots and we played better defense. I felt like we accomplished that tonight.”

The Bengals extended that eight-point margin to 27-11 on a put-back from senior Brad Lynch with 5:08 to go before KC got a pair of treys from junior guard Elijah Jenks and senior Liam Beckstead.

Beckstead’s three-pointer came at the 4:27 mark as the Broncos got within 27-17 but Gallup regained the momentum, outscoring the visiting KC squad 16-0 to end the half with the Bengals leading 43-17 at the break.

“It starts with little things that we worked on at practice,” Atazhoon said of the stops they made. “We took away the middle and we had help side and we made them turn the ball over. We did it as a team and got that big lead.”

Kirtland Central coach Brian Dowdy said his team had an off night as the Broncos dropped their first district contest.

“It was just one of those nights and I told the boys I’m not going to watch film,” he said. “It’s the first time I had to have that talk all year and they’re accountable and there was no finger pointing.

“We all know that we came out flat and you can’t do that against a good team,” he added. “There’s no excuses and we blew just about every assignment on both sides of the ball and that makes it tough.”

Jenks led the Broncos with 19 points including five treys. Sophomore point guard Satchel Hogue and junior guard Kragen Cadman added seven each.

The Bengals upped its record to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in District 1-4A play after defeating hometown rival Miyamura by a 69-45 count on April 23.

Gallup will host its next two games starting with Bloomfield on Tuesday and Shiprock on Thursday.

“We’re still trying to get better, and we know that we still have a tough road ahead us with this district,” Dunlap said.

The 8-1 Broncos are hosing Miyamura on Tuesday and they will close out the regular season at Bloomfield on Friday night.

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