Kirtland Central stuns Bernalillo, earns 20th state title

ALBUQUERQUE

The wait is over.

The KC girls’ basketball team notched its 20th state title on Friday night before a capacity crowd at the Pit in Albuquerque.

From the get-go, the top-seeded KC squad kept the momentum on its side, earning a 55-32 win over No. 3 seed Bernalillo.

The Lady Broncos ended a 10-year drought with fourth-year coach Devon Manning winning his first state title.

Previously, he coached KC to two other state championship games.

“I can tell you it feels a lot better being on the other side,” Manning said. “You know, I think we had to go through our bumps and bruises to really understand what it takes to get here, you know, to actually win the ballgame.

“It’s surreal, like even after the game we were just thinking to ourselves, ‘We actually did it,” he added. “It was so fun to watch how they play tonight. Man, these girls played their butts off tonight.”

KC senior guard Aisha Ramone spearheaded the Broncos on both ends of the court with 23 points, 8 steals, and 3 assists despite some foul trouble.

Ramone eventually fouled out, but she was spark plug when she was on the court. The KC senior had a hand in three defensive plays as the Broncos opened up a 23-11 cushion in the middle of the second period.

“She’s the catalyst to our defense,” the KC coach said. “She had a lot of steals tonight. In my opinion, she’s the best guard in 4A in New Mexico. Sometimes she doesn’t believe it.

“I think from our playoff game with Gallup, she proved she was the best player in our district,” he said. “And then these last four games, I think she proved she was the best player in the state.”

Ramone picked up her second foul at 4:54 mark in the first period, and she sat out for the remainder of the quarter.

“I didn’t expect the call because, you know, it was a loose ball, so we both went for it,” Ramone said. “But it was a push apparently.”

Despite her absence, the Broncos had others that picked up the slack. Junior Teghan Begay scored five of her seven-point to help KC to a 12-5 advantage heading into the second.

“Our strength all year has been our depth,” Manning said. “Jaylene (Harris-Rhea) stepped in there, and she gave us good minutes. There are a lot of minutes out there that our girls gave us that don’t show up in the stat sheets.”

At the half, the Broncos led 25-16 with seven different players scoring.

KC picked up where they left off with three early treys in the third for a commanding 34-16 cushion following Andrea Thomas’ trifecta.

“I think the turning point was when they hit those 3s,” Bernalillo coach Raymond Aragon said. “It was like boom, boom, boom, and it just changed everything.”

Aragon said their semifinal game against Gallup took a lot of them as the Spartans edged the Bengals 63-59 the day before.

“Last night felt like a championship game,” Aragon said of the state semis. “Tonight, it was kind of tough, but for them to experience (a state championship game) was great for our girls. Not just our girls, but our community and our surrounding Pueblos.”

Bernalillo was making its second state title appearance after 30 years.

Aragon said they didn’t “have the legs” to stay up with KC.

“We talked about attacking,” the Bernalillo coach said. “Not to make any excuses, Kirtland is a heck of a team. Last night our legs were kind of just out of it.

“We were kind of settling, and throughout the huddle, I kept telling them to keep moving the ball, attacking those gaps, but we just didn’t have the oomph,” he said. “I think we settled a lot for the 3s, and part of that was our legs were fatigued.”

The Spartans went 9-of-36 from the field and 3-of-25 from the 3-point line.

Bernalillo had 25 turnovers, with KC capitalizing on those miscues for 26 points.

The Broncos also held New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year Juliana Aragon to 13 points and two assists, which is well below her average of 29.7 points per game and 8.1 assists per game.

“In my four years, this is probably the best defensive performance we’ve had,” Manning said. “Especially, going against a girl like Aragon. And the fact that she makes her teammates so much better with her passing.”

The Broncos had nine of its 14 players score headed by the 23 points from Ramone. Senior Adriona Nargo added seven while Emilia Clani and Tymeika Johnson added five each.

On a sour note, the game took a nasty turn late in the contest after Manning cleared his bench.

With less than 30 seconds left, Bernalillo junior Nizhoni Keeto was ejected after grabbing KC senior Lovelia Murphy and knocking her down.

The Broncos finished the season at 27-5 overall.

---