Missed opportunities cost Farmington game with Kirtland Central

KIRTLAND, N.M.

Just before their district meeting with Farmington High School, the Kirtland Central High School Broncos took some time to envision their win.

The Broncos conducted mental imagery drills and reaped the benefits of it when their mental game led them to a 54-53 victory over the Scorpions.

Kirtland Central head coach Brian Dowdy said it was the bread and butter to their win.

“I really believe that when we’re focused, we’re that good,” he said. “I told the boys it’s going to come down to who turns it over and who doesn’t. We’re evenly matched, everybody knows everybody, you know their system, they know ours. Everything’s almost dead even and it’s going to be who plays harder and who can execute.”

In the end, it was the Broncos who executed, but the game didn’t start out that way.

Farmington had the upper hand to start the game. The Scorpions defeated the Broncos in Farmington’s tournament last month and knew that it was possible to repeat.

The Scorpions jumped ahead and executed their way to a quick 14-5 lead with half the quarter left to play. They extended their lead and capitalized on Kirtland Central’s missed baskets, to lead the Broncos 25-10 after one quarter.

After a pep talk between quarters, the Broncos had awakened.

Kirtland Central went on a 14-0 lead, holding the Scorpions and narrowing the deficit to three points. After two quarters Farmington led 29-26 at halftime.

Dowdy said his team simply needed reminding of the dos and don’ts.

“I told the boys to stay calm. We’re a good three-point shooting team, but we’re not hitting anything. We’re taking too many outside, we need to attack a little bit more,” he said. “I said, ‘I don’t want you to completely abandon the three-point shot because it’s gotten us where we are, but let’s not force it…I told them, ‘we got to box out.’”

Farmington head coach Paul Corley said the two teams had their moments in the first half, but the real battle came in the second.

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