Lady Sand Devils earn much-needed win over Window Rock

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

FORT DEFIANCE – Of the two teams, the Page Lady Sand Devils needed this win.

The Sand Devils led Window Rock for over three quarters on Saturday night before the two 3A North rivals exchanged leads in the last six-plus minutes. There were eight lead changes with Page getting the go-ahead bucket from senior Issianna Brown for a 45-44 win with nine seconds to go.

“Issianna is one of our seniors and, you know, she was just cold the entire night,” Page coach Celeste “Boka” Claw said of Brown who finished with only two points.

“She was probably 1-for-11 from the field goal range, but I kept telling her, ‘Hey, keep shooting. They’re gonna flow and something’s gonna fall for you,’” the Page coach said. “She ended up taking that last shot with confidence, and it dropped for her there at the end.”

Entering Saturday’s contest, Page was at the bottom of the 3A North. The win evened the Sand Devils’ region record at 2-2 as Page ended Window Rock’s eight-game winning streak.

“Props to Window Rock,” Boka said. “They have a great freshman group that’s coming up and they’re working well with their seniors. The freshmen are helping to distribute the ball and they’re playing good defense. They’re a group to look out for.”

The Scouts leaned on that freshmen group with guard Tiana Edison dropping a game-best 19 points while Naomi James added 11.

“I was talking to Boka earlier and I was telling her these freshmen girls are hungry,” Window Rock coach Gabrielle Whitney said. “They’re competitive and they have that desire and that want. That’s exactly what we need from these two freshmen.”

Whitney says the great thing about Edison and James is that they’re only going to get better.

“They came out and tried out for the varsity team,” she said. “Not only did they make varsity, but they also earned their spots as starters. That’s the fire that we need for the Lady Scouts. I feel like it brings the puzzle together.”

The Window Rock coach is ecstatic that her team is finding a balance with the freshmen players and her senior group, which includes Kourtney Bitselley, Kelly James, and Winnter Gibney.

“It’s fun watching the girls play because we don’t rely on one player and we don’t rely on two players,” Whitney said. “The girls that step onto the court can all step up. You know, I know everyone’s kind of worried about ‘T’ and they’re trying to stop her, but we have four other girls that can score and that can play.

“That is what I love about this team, anyone can score, anyone can get that defensive stop,” she added. “So again, that’s a good thing for us; we just don’t rely on that one player.”

Edison was a steady force for Window Rock in the opening half as she scored seven in the first and nine in the second.

For Page, Trece Tsinigine put in seven of her 13 points in opening quarter as the Sand Devils took 14-11 lead.

A basket by senior Tayla Franklin pushed Page’s advantage to 18-13 with 6:04 left before the half. Later in the quarter, sophomore Sarah Dodson nailed a 3-pointer while sophomore Savannah Franklin added an old-fashion 3-point play for a 28-21 cushion with 2:32 remaining.

Window Rock, however, got a 3-point play from Edison and trailed 28-24 at the break.

“We had a slow start,” Whitney said. “Our shots weren’t falling for the girls. They’re usually on fire but like I told the girls it’s gonna happen.”

Tayla Franklin opened the second half with her second trey of the game for a seven-point cushion (31-24), but Window Rock scored six straight to make it a one-possession game.

Page entered the fourth stanza with a 36-34 advantage. The Scouts took its first lead at 37-36 following a Sand Devil turnover with Edison scoring a transition layup with 6:15 left. Following seven more lead changes, Page eked out the win late in the contest.

“This is a good win for us,” said Tayla Franklin, who shared top scoring honors with Tsinigine as the two players finished with 13.

“We’re taking it game by game, but we know that we have a good team,” she said. “We know that we can win these types of games. I mean, we’ve had our ups and downs where we lose communication, and we lose the lead. We just have to tell ourselves to stay calm and just start picking it up.

“And that’s what we did (late in the game), we picked it up,” she continued.

Page, which improved to 9-10 overall, hosted Monument Valley on Wednesday and the results for that game was no available at press time. The Sand Devils is hosting Ganado on Friday before hosting Tuba City on Tuesday.

“Our record does not speak of who we are,” Claw said. “A lot of people caught us when we were weak. We had people that were sick, and we had people that had injuries.

“We played a lot of teams from out of state, too,” she added. “We’re starting to get that flow back, and we’re just going to continue to push forward.”

Get instant access to this story by purchasing one of our many e-edition subscriptions HERE at our Navajo Times Store.

 

---