KC, Gallup girls to meet in Class 4A championship game

ALBUQUERQUE

The wait is finally over.

After three rounds, the New Mexico Class 4A girls state basketball crown will be decided between two of the state’s most storied programs.

On Thursday, top-seeded Kirtland Central and No. 2 Gallup advanced into Friday’s championship game, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Pit in Albuquerque. The championship tilt is a rematch of last year’s finals as the Bengals won that contest 51-41.

Gallup

Of the two teams, the Lady Bengals (27-4) faced adversity with two starters in foul trouble as they overcame a six-point halftime deficit against third-seeded Albuquerque Academy in the first semifinal game on Thursday.

With a renewed sense of urgency, Gallup turned back the Lady Chargers and earned its way into the championship game with a 54-44 win.

“Every time you get here to Albuquerque, it’s never easy,” Gallup coach Todd McBroom said. “You have to earn your way in. For two years in a row, we’ve been really pushed in the semifinal game and so I’m proud of the girls.”

Gallup had to work through some early foul trouble with junior post Kayden Tsosie and junior guard Mykeia Vicenti getting whistled with three fouls each in the opening half.

“We had these two sit a lot in the first half and that didn’t help,” McBroom said of Tsosie and Vicenti. “In the second half, we cleaned up some things. We got out of the press to conserve some fouls.

“We’re getting too far away from the basket, and I thought that was a big change for us,” he added.

Gallup was led by Vicenti as she finished with 13 points while her teammates Payton Johnson and Tsosie added a dozen each.

In addition to foul trouble, Vicenti also took a hard tumble with 2:25 left in the third quarter when she was fouled.

“The recovery was really hard,” Vicenti said. “You know, it’s still hurting pretty bad, but I couldn’t give up on my team. I had to fight through the pain.”

The come-from-behind win snapped Academy’s five game win streak as the Chargers finished the season at 25-6 overall.

“This really, really hurts because we felt like we had a chance to beat them,” Academy coach Joshua Skarsgard said. “But we’re super proud of these girls. This is the furthest any Academy girls team has ever gone in the playoffs. I love our team, and we set a school record of 25 wins, which is the most we’ve ever had at Academy.”

In the opening half, the Chargers used its imposing size to limit Gallup’s interior game as the Bengals did not get any paint points as 6-foot-6 junior post Harper Dunn swatted five blocks.

Meanwhile, Academy scored 12 points near the basket as they erased a 10-9 deficit and led 27-21 at halftime with sophomore Lily Skarsgard and Dunn combining for 17 points with Lily scoring nine.

With their length, the Chargers also dominated the boards 23 to 12, which included 11 offensive board. Of those offensive rebounds, Academy had four putbacks.

“We led the state in Class 4A in offensive rebounds,” the Academy coach said. “We have the best frontcourt in the state, the tallest, most active girls so our offensive rebounds were a huge advantage today. Kiki, Harper, and Addie did a great job crashing.”

But after the break, the tenor of the game went Gallup’s way as the Bengals outscored Academy 33 to 17 in the second half as they kept Academy off the boards on the offensive end.

“We talked about that at halftime,” McBroom said. “I think they had 11 offensive boards, and I told them we need to hold them to around three and we gave up (seven) in the second half.”

Offensively, Gallup didn’t shy away from attacking Academy’s defense as they made multiple trips to the free throw line. In the second half alone, they hit 17-of-22 free throws.

The Bengals also made some key 3-pointers, including one by Johnson as her trifecta gave Gallup the lead for good at 42-39 at the end of the third quarter.

Kirtland Central

After a defensive battle with Hope Christian for the first 12 minutes, the Lady Broncos finished the first half on a 6-0 run for a 29-19 halftime lead.

KC started the second half putting up the first 11 points and that 17-0 scoring spurt took the wind out of the Lady Huskies as the Broncos pulled away for a 61-38 win in the second semifinal.

“We thought their legs were giving out a little bit,” Kirtland Central coach Devon Manning said of Hope Christian.

With some tired legs from Hope, the Manning-coached team kept the pace of the game to their liking with its uptempo game. The Broncos scored often in transition as they scored 27 fast break points.

Junior Elaini Clani and sophomore Allyson Tsosie shared top team scoring honors for KC with 13 points apiece. Senior Haylee Nocki and junior Zoey Benally added 12 and 10, respectively. The Broncos also received nine points from senior Krista Tsingine-Yazzie.

“We just kept moving the ball and we tried to look for the open shots,” Nocki said of their offensive output. We “just played with each other.”

For Hope, junior wing Abrianna Bishop finished with a game-high 18 points, which included a 3-of-8 effort from the 3-point line. Bishop hit a pair of treys early in the contest that gave the Huskies an 8-2 advantage 5:16 left in the first period.

“She got them going them going early and every time we went to our man-to-man, even in our zone, we had to be aware of where she was,” Manning said. “Again, those were made early, but it’s hard to make those shots when you’re running up down the court for 32 minutes, and so those legs are a little weary.”

KC will now focus on Gallup as the Broncos will be looking to avenge last year’s loss.

“We’re just excited to be there,” Manning said. “We understand how hard it is to play in the last game and we’re just grateful that it’s gone our way so far and we’re just excited to play.”

This is the fourth meeting between the two state powerhouses with KC winning the first two games by 42 and 25 points, respectively. In their latest meeting, Gallup turned back the Broncos 49-41 during the District 1-4A championship game.

“I thought they played hungrier than we did in that championship ball game,” Manning said. “Sometimes, no matter who you’re playing it’s hard to get girls motivated after winning by 40 points.

“If this doesn’t motivate the girls, there is nothing that I’m going to say is going to motivate them,” he said. “Like I said, we’re just grateful to be here, to be in that game tomorrow night and we’ll see how it goes.”

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