Navajo Prep turns back St. Michael’s

By Santiago Ramos Jr.
Special to the Times

RIO RANCHO

No. 2 seed Navajo Prep broke a 21-21 tie at the half with a solid third quarter to turn back No. 7 St. Michael’s 49-42 Tuesday afternoon during the Class 3A girls state basketball quarterfinals at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

The 26-3 Lady Eagles outscored the Lady Horsemen 16 to 11 in the third quarter that proved to be the difference.

Navajo Prep head coach Rainy Crisp, whose team captured the state title in 2017 that was followed by a state runner-up the following year and again in 2020, said that she made adjustments at the half.

Crisp said that her team had played just one game each week for the last two weeks.

“I was just telling the girls the past two weeks we only had one game per week with the district championship and then the first round at state,” she said. “So, one game a week that kind of sets us back a little bit. But we come out there and we grind it. St. Michael’s came out. They were ready to play. It was good I’m glad we pulled it off. Once we made some adjustments then we were OK. Sometimes we run it really great, but like tonight our defense was not that great so we had to pull it (the press) off.

“In the first half we were getting beat. They were knocking down some big time 3’s and just staying in the game. But in the second half we finally really timed our defense. We had to pull off our press because we kept getting beat. But once we finally got the momentum we were able to put our press back on and create some easy baskets off our defense.”

The game was tied four times with just three lead changes.

Prep’s Tru Billie finished off a 3-point play with 1:43 left in the game that gave Navajo Prep its biggest lead at 11 points, 49-38.

“I told the girls it’s not all about numbers anymore,” Crisp said. “It doesn’t matter what seed and seeded where. It’s all about who comes out and plays basketball. We all have the same goal to get the blue trophy. I was telling them in practice you see the NCAA even the NBA last-second shots, game-winner shots. It’s March Madness now. We just have to be ready to play.”

Navajo Prep was aggressive on the boards – 43 to 29 – that fueled putbacks for a 40 percent shooting, 19 of 47. St. Michael’s struggled from the field with 30 percent shooting 13 of 44.

“I don’t know if it looked that pretty in the first half,” Crisp said with a laugh. “Like I said, the second half we fixed some things and that was one of them they were getting second opportunities on offense. We were one shot and out on our offensive end. We talked about that at halftime to be more aggressive on the boards.”

Navajo Prep’s Aniya Johnson finished with a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds along with 3 blocks and 3 steals. Billie added 12 points.

“I just think that we came out in the second half really wanting it more and playing like we wanted it,” Johnson said. “And I think the energy that we brought out really helped us.”

St. Michael’s Madelyn Mossman finished with 11 points for the 18-12 Lady Horsemen.

Navajo Prep will face No. 3 seed Santa Fe Indian School which took care of No. 6 Sandia Prep 40-32 in its state quarterfinals. Game time is Thursday at the Rio Rancho Events Center at 8:15 p.m.

It will be a rematch of the Santa Fe Indian Invitation where Navajo Prep edged out Santa Fe Indian in the tourney finals.

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