Getting defensive: Crownpoint girls hold off Thoreau in title game at Wingate Holiday Classic

FORT WINGATE, N.M.

Points were hard to come by in the finals of the Wingate Holiday Classic girls’ basketball tournament on Saturday night.

In a low-scoring affair the Crownpoint Lady Eagles eked out a 38-33 win over district rival Thoreau in a contest that featured some stellar defense by both clubs.

“We’ve been working on defense a lot,” Crownpoint coach Khadijha Jackson said. “We’ve been telling them our offense will come later. We’ve been getting on them about defense since day one.”

Jackson said the defensive effort they displayed on Saturday night is one of the better outings they’ve had as the Eagles came into Wingate tournament floundering despite its 7-2 record, which includes a Tuesday night win over Northwest.

“We came off a rough tournament in Magdalena and we took two losses there,” she said. “It was a tough loss and we kind of regrouped.”

Earlier last week, Jackson said her team continued to struggle as they slipped by Cuba in a 47-45 triumph.

Things took a different turn when they got to the Wingate tournament as the Eagles relied on their defense to post double-digit wins over Whitehorse (63-48) and Wingate (59-32) to reach the finals.

The Lady Hawks had a familiar path to the finals as they made quick work of Newcomb (72-15) and Zuni (55-17) in the first two rounds.

The circumstances on Saturday night changed as neither team could find an offensive rhythm early on.

With the Hawks packing its zone defense, the Eagles had to resort to outside shooting.

They missed on its first six attempts as Thoreau held on to a 6-4 advantage after one quarter of play.

“We started our defense really strong,” fourth-year Thoreau coach Rachel Becenti said. “We made some good rotations but late in the game we kind of got tired and our defense started to get sloppy.”

With better ball movement in the second period, Crownpoint got its first trey to drop at the 4:27 mark when junior Janaya Tom found the bottom of the net for a 10-8 advantage.

Tom, who made the all-tournament team, added a second trey later in the quarter that tied the game at 15-all before Thoreau closed out the first half on a 5-0 run.

The Hawks hit back-to-back buckets including a buzzer beating trey from senior Shanell Edsitty, which turned out to Thoreau’s only basket from beyond the three-point line.

Trailing 20-15 at the break, the Jackson-coached team started the second half with a barrage of threes.

They nailed three of them, which included two by senior guard Kaleigh Shorty.

Shorty’s trifecta gave Crownpoint a slight 24-20 edge with 5:36 left to go.

Thoreau retook the lead at 27-26 at the 2:08 mark on a free throw from junior guard Leah Delgarito, who also made the all-tournament team.

Crownpoint, however, got its fifth trey to drop when tournament MVP Shaylynn Begay buried one from the baseline corner.

“It really depends on how we move the ball,” Begay said of getting those good looks from the outside.

“We really worked together as a team and when we got those corner threes it really boosted our momentum,” she said.

Crownpoint got its final trey late in the fourth and it was a huge one as Tom’s three-point make gave them a 37-31 cushion with 1:38 left.

That basket was a result of dribble-drive dish off from senior Erin Etsitty, who broke down Thoreau’s defense as the Hawks collapsed on her, leaving Tom wide open.

“We tried to get the ball back, so we went man,” Becenti said. “They did a really good job of spreading us out and the help defense was there, but we gave away the lane and she (Etsitty) passed it off.”

Becenti said that particular play proved to be critical, but she was adamant about her team playing ball side defense and staying on the floor.

“It’s something that we cover in practice every day,” she said. “We have to get low on defense and we need to stay on the floor. We got beat one-on-one and I think we just ran out of legs. We just couldn’t rotate fast enough on that (drive).”

As a team, Crownpoint made 7-of-18 treys headed by Tom as she made three and scored a team-best 12 points.

All-tourney selection Brianna Billie and Begay added seven.

For Thoreau, Delgarito finished with a dozen while all-tourney selection Edsitty chipped in nine.

Thoreau also landed Kayla Garcia on the all-tournament team, as well as Crownpoint’s Erin Etsitty.

With the loss, Thoreau dropped to 4-2 overall.

Other than a few mental breakdowns down the stretch, Becenti was pleased with the way her team performed.

“We’ve played some teams to where we’ve been outscoring them by 40-plus points,” she said. “Coming in we knew Crownpoint was going to be competitive. They did a good job of pressuring us to where we couldn’t get our offense running.

“The defended us in the inside and they also took away our kick outs,” she said. “They pretty much covered us well inside and out.”

Third place

The Zuni Lady Thunderbirds had a slight hiccup at the start of the third quarter against host Wingate as they saw a 17-point halftime cushion dropped to a 27-21 with 2:36 remaining.

After Wingate went on its run, the T-birds closed out the Bears by outscoring them 25 to 14 in the final 10 minutes of the third-place game.

“I’m proud of the girls,” Zuni coach Rhonan Begay said. “We did pretty well. We just started slow against Thoreau and for some reason our shots weren’t falling.”

Begay said his team shot 15 percent from the field against Thoreau, one of its worst shooing performances.

“When you can’t make buckets you can’t stay in the game,” he said.

In the third-place game, Begay said his team was a little more composed at running their offense as Zuni had eight players score with junior Fernadette Yastatie leading the way with 14 while Lani Penketewa had 10.

For Wingate, LouAnn Yonnie finished with nine and McKayla Tahe chipped in eight.

First-year coach Wingate coach Billie Badonie Jr. said he’s trying to rebuild the program, as the Bears did not play last season because of the pandemic.

Before taking the position, Badonie assisted boys head coach Al Martinez for a number of years.

“This is actually our first year coming back,” he said. “It is a lot of work to rebuild a new team that I’ve never worked with.

“It’s kind of hard to coach the girls because some of them maybe softhearted,” he said. “It’s different because I know the boys can take it. I’m not going to give up on them, I’m going to keep working with them.”

---