Navajo players key in advancing Pima women’s basketball

By Antonio Ramirez
Special to the Times

TUCSON, Ariz.

Three Navajo athletes, including star player Jacqulynn “JJ” Nakai, generated and sustained momentum to lead the Pima Community College women’s basketball team to victory last Saturday in the NJCAA Division II, Region 1 Championship game.

With the most recent win, the Aztecs advance forward to the national championship tournament to be held March 19-23 in Harrison, Arkansas.

Throughout the game, Nakai drew loud cheers from the crowd, which is not surprising considering she broke Pima’s career scoring record last month. There is also the fact that she has a steady network of family who traveled long-distance from Window Rock, Dilkon, Flagstaff and the Four Corners region to be there for the game.

Despite being double-teamed often, Nakai looked confident, biding her time to create opportunities for herself and her teammates. She finished the game with 30 points for the Aztec’s 80-58 win over Mesa Community College, and was named the region’s Most Valuable Player for 2019.

“I just did my usual thing,” said Nakai, who is Ta’neeszahnii born for Tábąąhá. “Push the ball. Be aggressive. I think doing that got my other teammates open. If you saw, I draw two or even three or four players and was just able to find the open man and let them get good shots. All of our contributions (were) great today.”

The Aztecs maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half, much credit due to Nakai who scored 22 of her 30 points in the latter part of the game.

The initial push ahead, though, began in the second quarter with Haile Gleason, a freshman who is Tábąąhá born for Hashtl’ishnii, and originally from Newcomb, New Mexico.

When asked how she felt going into the game, Gleason said, “Since it was the championship game and like my first year in college, I was kind of a little bit nervous.”

Of course, in a gymnasium full of strangers, playing what may be the most important game of your athletic career, could be extremely difficult and nerve-wracking for anyone. For Gleason, it showed. But only for about a minute.

When Gleason went into the game at the end of the first quarter Pima was leading Mesa Community College by two points, 18-16.

Then at the beginning of the second quarter Gleason hit two back-to-back shots for two- and three-points to give the Aztec’s a seven-point lead, 23-16.

“After I got into the groove, I got more comfortable, and started getting excited, and happy, and very hyped!” said Gleason.

This showed too, as she looked completely at ease and pushed her team to finish the first half with a 17-point lead.

From there, the Aztecs never looked back, and won by 22 points.

Todd Holthaus, head coach of the Aztecs, was smiling wide after the win.

“Tonight was our best performance of the year,” he said. “They came together. The freshmen played like they’ve been there before and the sophomores did what they were supposed to.”

Holthaus mentioned two players that were leaders throughout the season: sophomores Nakai and Shauna Bribiescas, who is Kinyaa’áanii born for Naakai dine’é.

“Shauna is kind of the glue that holds everything together,” said Holthaus. “She runs things the way I want them to be run. She’s the mama bear in terms of keeping everybody in line and making sure we’re doing what we need to be doing on and off the court.”

Bribiescas finished the game with 8 points, and had a strong defensive performance helping the Aztecs maintain their lead in the second half.

“I tried to really just focus on my defense and help out with guards,” she said. “Because it looked like they really tried to take the guards down in the post.

“We just kept attacking them and hitting, and there was a point where I feel like we were just scoring and we just kept causing turnovers.”

Given the Aztecs’ success with three Navajo players on the team, more colleges may be looking at Native athletes.

In fact, Nakai, Bribiescas and Gleason were not the only Native players on the court. Mesa Community College also had Cheyenne Begay, Lynnae Mitchell, Jacey Salabiye and Iris Domebo on its roster.

That’s not to mention Ambreya Windy Boy who plays forward for the Aztecs, but was unable to play Saturday.

One reason for this is the exposure players receive at the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) tournament, which will be held this year June 23-29 in Phoenix and Maricopa.

Holthaus said he recruits every year at the NABI tournament, and as a result he has had Native American players before.

“This year, for some reason, we have four,” Holthaus said.

“The style of play we like to play is up and down. We want to get up and down the floor. Call it rez ball, or whatever you want to call it . . . We just play and let the game happen. I think that coincides with the way a lot of these girls have played before.”

Exposure is important for athletes trying to make a name for themselves and move on to the next level, especially high school players from reservations.

Nakai is well aware, making mention of how Native Americans are not generally known for being recruited and playing basketball.

“One thing I try to do is put Native Americans on the map more,” she said. “This (championship game) shows how much hard work we put in. We try our hardest. We definitely give everything we’ve got. We hustle.”

Down the road, sophomores Nakai and Bribiescas may be players to look out for as they are currently being recruited by a number of NCAA Division I schools. For now, they have plenty on their minds as they vie for the national championship.

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