Lady Pirates win seesaw affair over Piñon in 2A North action

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

SANDERS, Ariz. – Two extremes best describe the 2A North matchup between the Valley Lady Pirates and the Piñon Lady Eagles on Saturdy afternoon.

Valley won 49-44, but after a great start the Pirates fell into a lull midway through the second quarter, which carried over into the second half. The Pirates opened a 23-1 cushion behind the play of seniors Trinity Mitchell and Elianna Swatts. The two players combined for 19 points with Mitchell scoring 10, which included a pair of treys.

Piñon, however, chipped away at that colossal deficit and got within 37-36 with 6:47 left in the fourth on a putback from senior guard Kylie Bia, who spearheaded that rally with teammates Hanka Blie and Shanna Begaye.

“Everything was clicking and somehow we lost it,” longtime Valley coach Dorothy Mitchell said. “We just couldn’t get going and they kind of got upset with each other a little bit.”

Mitchell also pointed out that when they subbed out starter Nevaeh Benally, the chemistry the team had withered away.

“She’s really good, but she’s sick,” Mitchell said. “When she’s in the game, it makes a difference. We subbed her out for about four minutes and that is when they made their run.”

Mitchell said once Benally got back into the game, they started to transition a little better. Nonetheless, the visiting Eagles kept their momentum going.

“The defense was there, but on offense we just couldn’t get the feel, we couldn’t get our touches,” Piñon coach Shane Begay said of his team’s slow start. “We came short, but that’s probably the biggest comeback we’ve made this season. The one thing I tell them is when you face adversity, keep fighting, no matter how much you’re down.”

That was what his guards did as Blie scored eight while Bia chipped in seven and Begaye added five during Piñon’s 35-12 run to get within 37-36.

“We switched some things up,” Begay said of the adjustments they made. “It was more of changing the mindsets of my point guards, letting them know that what they were doing in the first quarter was not working, so we tweaked a few things here and there.

“I felt like our point guards were a little bit strong in bringing the ball down,” he continued. “They were weaving through their defense, and we finished our shots.”

Despite its bold rally, the Eagles couldn’t get over that hump as Valley closed out the last six-plus minutes by going on a 12-8 run.

“We had chances to take the lead and we had chances to tie it, but it didn’t work out,” the Piñon coach said. “That kind of put a damper on us and it kind of put us down a little bit.”

Blie and Bia both finished with 11 points while Begaye added seven for Piñon.

Valley was led by Trinity Mitchell as she put in 17 of her game-high 22 points in the opening half. Swatts added 11 with seven of those points also coming in the first two quarters.

“We started off strong, but during the second quarter we played flat,” Trinity Mitchell said. “I think we got a little too comfortable. Even though they got close, we did what we needed to do, which is keeping our composure because it kind of got messy toward the end. We sort of cleaned it up and we got into our transition game.”

Valley earned the No. 3 seed for the 2A North Region Tournament, and they will host No. 6 Many Farms on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. No. 5 Piñon travels to No. 4 Hopi also on Thursday.

The semifinal and the championship game will be played at top-seeded St. Johns on Saturday with the first semifinal scheduled at 1 p.m. followed by the second one at 2:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“We need to play consistent,” Dorothy Mitchell said of the region tournament. “Many Farms is always a challenge, and they give us a game, so it’ll be interesting.”

The winner of the Valley/Many Farms game will take on the survivor between No. 2 seed Round Valley and/or Northland Preparatory as the latter two teams would have played on Wednesday night to determine the Nos. 7 and 8 seed for the tournament.

In the top half of the bracket, the Hopi/Piñon winner will most likely play St. Johns.

Regardless of what happens at the regional tournament, Valley and Piñon are a shoo-in to make the 2A Conference Play-In Game while Hopi and Many Farms sit on the bubble.

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