Lady Scorpions capture regular season district crown with 9-1 record

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

FARMINGTON – The Farmington girls basketball team were honored on Friday night for winning the District 1-5A regular season crown.

After dropping their first district game to Rio Rancho, the second-ranked Lady Scorpions (23-3) responded with nine straight league wins as Farmington will host the district tournament championship game on Friday night at 6 p.m.

“Like I’ve told the girls, they’re very resilient,” Farmington coach Tom Adair said. “The game before Rio Rancho, we played Hobbs in Moriarty, and we lost, so it was kind of a long trip and that was on a Friday.

“We had to turn around on Tuesday and play at Rio Rancho, and we had plenty of opportunities to win,” he added. “In the last minute, I think we missed three free throws and two layups. We make those, we win the game.”

The Scorps lost that game by a 55-54 count and since then Farmington has been on a tear as they are projected to either get the No. 1 or 2 seed for the upcoming Class 5A state tournament.

“I think losing that game helped the girls get refocus,” Adair said. “You know, the rest of the district season we just played really good basketball. Our defense has been solid, and we want to score our points off our defense.

“Like I told them, I love the way they’re sharing the ball,” he added. “There’s no jealousy on this team. They just love playing together.”

In its regular season finale, the Adair-coached team flexed its muscle against city rival Piedra Vista as Farmington posted a 73-42 win on Friday.

For the first three minutes, though, PV played on even terms with the Scorps as a pair of free throws from freshman Chloe Hickman pulled the Lady Panthers within 5-4.

Farmington, however, finished out the quarter with an 11-4 run as senior Chenoa Parrish scored six of her game-best 18 points for a 16-8 advantage.

With its stingy defense, Farmington created some separation as the Scorps outscored PV 33 to 10 in the second stanza for a 49-18 halftime cushion.

Senior guard Kjani “Bamm-Bamm” Anitielu was one of the benefactors of Farmington’s relentless defensive pressure as she scored nine of her 16 points.

“We just had to get our minds right after that first quarter, and I feel like we did a really good job of locking in on defense,” Anitielu said. “This year is really special; everyone on this team is really coachable and that showed in the second quarter.”

Anitielu received plenty of help from her teammates in that quarter as six other players chipped in with Parrish adding five while seniors Ziondra Leuppe and Caris Dale both had four points each.

“We rely a lot on our defense, more than our offense because that’s where our points come from,” said Dale, who finished with 14 points. “We get a lot of steals when we make the other team turn the ball over.”

In the second half, the Scorps did not take their foot off the gas as they briefly instituted a running clock while leading 62-24 late in the third. But PV senior Jaime Pierce capped the quarter with a pair of 3s to end the running clock as the Panthers trailed 62-30 going into the fourth.

Farmington reinstituted the running clock by going over the 35-point threshold on a trey by Parrish as the Scorps opened a 71-35 advantage with 5:08 left.

“I’m just really proud of how they played tonight,” Adair said. “They took care of business. PV is a very well-coached team. I knew they were going to come after us. They always do, but we just took care of business, and they did the right thing, so I’m really proud of them.”

Pierce led PV with 13 points, which included a 3-of-4 effort from beyond the arc. On Monday night, the Panthers lost their first-round game in the District 1-5A tournament as they came up short to Cleveland by a 73-41 count.

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