Ganado girls come up short in state title hunt
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero Ganado Lady Hornet Amber James (20) attempts a shot against Thatcher during the Arizona Division IV girls state championship game at the Prescott Valley Events Center in Prescott Valley, Ariz. The Lady Hornets lost, 36-33.
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz.
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Ganado Lady Hornet Amber James (20) attempts a shot against Thatcher during the Arizona Division IV girls state championship game at the Prescott Valley Events Center in Prescott Valley, Ariz. The Lady Hornets lost, 36-33.
The Thatcher girl’s basketball team had a definite size advantage on Ganado with a few players listed near 6 feet.
That helped the No. 2 seed Lady Eagles to an early double-digit lead. That size advantage also helped the Lady Eagles overcome a late deficit to score a 36-33 win over the Ganado Lady Hornets in the Arizona Division IV state girls championship game.
“Obviously this is not the outcome we wanted,” Ganado coach Mike Bitsuie said. “We had a three-point lead and I wouldn’t say we gave it away, but I give (Thatcher) credit. We didn’t execute our passes and they got ahead.”
Thatcher ended the game on an 8-2 run after Ganado briefly gained a 31-28 lead with 2:51 left in regulation on two free throws from Tierra James. But after taking care of the ball rather well for most of the contest, the Lady Hornets then committed three turnovers in those final minutes.
Gained took their last lead of the game with a minute left on a nice pull up jumper from junior JaeLynn Curley. Thatcher, however, got the go-ahead basket from Emily Norton with 32 seconds left and teammate Sarah Green cemented the win with a transition layup.
Earlier in the contest, Thatcher appeared to be in control using an early 8-0 run at the start of the second stanza to extend a nine-point first quarter lead into a 21-5 cushion.
Bitsuie said that slow start was a result of his girls not communicating enough as Thatcher junior guard Macee Bingham took advantage of the screens her team set for her to go off for 11 early points.
“We came out slow tonight,” the Ganado coach said. “We tried pressing but the girls were not on the same page. Some were pressing and some were not and they were getting some easy shots.”
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow