KC girls hold serve in win over Gallup

WINDOW ROCK

In its hopes for a district crown, the Kirtland Central girls’ basketball team held serve on its home court against top-ranked Gallup on Tuesday night.

The Lady Broncos got out to an 8-0 cushion and held off the shorthanded Bengals by a 50-45 count.

“They were without Hailey Long and Jordan Joe,” KC coach Devon Manning said of Gallup’s top two players.

“They were without them but that just put a little bit more pressure on us to get the win because if we didn’t, we really would have an uphill climb when we go to their place,” Manning said. “I figure those two will be back, so this was a good win.”

Gallup coach Todd McBroom said he was also missing reserve guard Katherine Lincoln for Tuesday’s night game, as the Bengals hit a snag in establishing any rhythm.

“It’s difficult when you don’t have kids that kind of carried the team,” McBroom said. “We do have other kids but it’s not quite the same because I’m asking kids to change their role and, you know, we’ve kind of established what the roles are and then I’m asking younger kids to do other things and it made it difficult.”

McBroom said they had a few games canceled prior to Tuesday’s match with KC and that affected the teams’ play.

“Ultimately we need to be playing games,” he said. “This is our second game in a month’s time. If you’re not playing games you’re not getting in a rhythm, even with kids in and out. I felt like it would be better to go and play this game.”

After trailing 8-0, McBroom said his club had a tough hill to climb out of, as KC dictated the pace of the game.

“I give credit to Kirtland,” the Gallup coach said. “They went down and turned the ball over and they made us play a lot of defense. I felt like that’s all we did, which is play defense. They’re so patient on offense and that made it difficult.”

With the pace at it’s liking, the Broncos pushed its lead to 15-3 after a 2-point basket by sophomore Tyra Yazzie.

At the break, KC led 21-12.

The Broncos pushed its lead to as much as 34-16 in the third after a layup by junior Teghan Begay with 4:15 to go.

Gallup, however, cut that margin down to 35-23 going into the fourth.

Behind some 3-point shooting, the Bengals trimmed KC’s lead to 38-32 with 5:46 left on a trey by senior guard Trinity Juan.

About a minute later, senior Michaela McCurtain hit a layup in transition as they got as close as four points.

“We kind of opened things up in the third quarter,” Manning said. “We got it up to (18) points at one time but then we let them back in. They ended up hitting a couple of threes so instead of being up by 18 we were only up (four).”

Ramone led the Broncos with 17 points while Teghan Begay added nine.

For Gallup, Michaela McCurtain finished with 14 and Juan added 11, which included three treys.

On Friday, Gallup will host Miyamura while KC plays at Shiprock.

The rematch between the two 4A powerhouses will take place on Feb. 4 in Gallup.

And while everyone is expecting Gallup and KC to battle for the district crown, Manning cautioned everyone to not overlook the rest of the teams in District 1-4A, which also includes Bloomfield and Aztec.

“Regardless of who is in our district it’s always a tough one,” he said. “We’ve always struggled with Bloomfield. Miyamura is always a tough game. Aztec plays super physical so that is never an easy game, so we don’t have a night off regardless if we’re playing Gallup or not.

“We’re just fortunate to win tonight,” he added. “Tomorrow we have to somehow get better. Come Friday we got to try and go 2-0.”

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