Guard’s heroic effort not enough to topple Prep girls

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Mar 12, 2020 | Basketball |

RIO RANCHO, N.M.

Not too many players can light up the scoreboard for 38 points.

That is what Tucumcari senior guard Ashley Shipley did on Tuesday night but that impressive showing was not enough as the top-seeded Lady Eagles advanced with a 67-55 win over the Lady Rattlers.

Navajo Prep will take on No. 4 seed West Las Vegas today at 9:45 a.m. at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.

The winner will play in the 3A championship game, which is scheduled for a 3 p.m. tipoff on Friday inside the Dreamstyle Arena, aka the Pit, in Albuquerque.

“She’s a heck of a player,” Navajo Prep coach Rainy Crisp said of Shipley. “Our girls tried their best to stay with her, and try and limit her opportunities but she still had 38 points on us … that just proves how great of a player she is.”

With that said, the longtime Navajo Prep coach said the emphasis going into the game was to shut down everyone else.

“She was going to get her points but we tried to not let anyone get going,” said Crisp, whose team improved to 26-2 overall. “That was pretty much the talk in the locker room.”

For a good part of the first half the Eagles limited the damage, particularly Shipley’s, as they raced out to a 20-2 cushion following a free throw from junior Tiontai Woods, who scored nine of her 13 points, with 6:25 left in the second.

“We played good and I’m very proud of how we started the game,” Crisp said. “We started out strong and that is what really helped us throughout the game because I think in the second, third quarter we went through a scoring slump to where we didn’t score for a very long time.

“It was really good to have that cushion,” she added. “I’m very proud of my starters but I’m very proud of my bench who came in and did work while some of my starters got in foul trouble early on.”

Prep’s good start had a lot to do with its opportunistic defense as they coerced Tucumcari to cough up the ball 12 times in that first nine-plus minutes.

“Overall we did good with our defense,” said Navajo Prep junior guard Laila Charley, who noted that they had to adjust to the refs with their early foul trouble. “We did better in the second half, getting used to 21 (Shipley) and double-teaming her.”

After that initial surge Tucumcari put together some runs as they closed that 18-point deficit down to 32-21 at the break with Shipley scoring 17 of those points.

In the early going of the third, the Tucumcari guard hit her fourth trey of the night to get her team within 34-28. But Navajo Prep hit another gear, closing out the rest of the third on a 21-3 run for a 53-31 cushion.

The margin was pushed to as much as 25 points before the Rattlers made one final run to close within 12 points.

Offensively, junior Hailey Martin led Navajo Prep with 16 points as she finished with a double-double, which included 10 rebounds. Senior Aiona Johnson chipped in 14.

“I think we all put in a lot of effort,” Martin said. “I know Coach Crisp always tells us that rebounds, they win games … They really help us with our second opportunities.”

Going forward, Crisp said her club knows they still have a target on their backs and she’s expecting another battle in today’s game with West Las Vegas.

“It’s coming down to a battle, a fight now,” she said. “We have to be ready to go to war every time we step onto that court because we know it’s not going to be easy.”