NABI Silver Girls Division

Flying Squirrel survives rally, wins tournament

PHOENIX

Flying Squirrels’ coach Dorothy Mitchell said her team did pretty much what they wanted at the start of the championship game of the Silver Girls Division on Friday at the 2015 Native American Basketball Invitational.

The Flying Squirrels, a team comprised of the Valley Sanders girls basketball team, bolted out to a 17-0 lead against the undermanned Pretty Tough team.

But for the last 25 minutes the Pretty Tough squad turned the tables and gave the Flying Squirrels a scare.

“We had a great start but I think we got a little complacent there at the end,” Mitchell said after her team pulled out a 48-42 win at Phoenix College.

Mitchell said they were doing a lot of things right at the start of the game as the Flying Squirrels held Pretty Tough without a field goal for the first six minutes.

“We really worked on our defense,” said Mitchell, while adding that their efforts created opportunities on the offensive end.

“We’re a running team so when we turn we push the ball down real quick,” she said.

During that run the Flying Squirrels nailed three treys with Latisha Nastacio accounting for two of those baskets. Her second three-pointer gave the designated visiting team a 14-0 cushion with 10:39 to go in the first half.

As a team the Flying Squirrels made six treys, all coming in the first half. Nastacio had half of those treys while teammate Tamara Nez had two.

“We really spread the floor and we got some open shots,” Mitchell said.

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