Navajo Prep’s defense stymies Tohatchi for 3A state crown: Lady Eagles win eighth state championship

ALBUQUERQUE – The pain of last year’s state semifinal loss to Santa Fe Indian School was felt on so many levels for Navajo Prep girls basketball.

Longtime coach Rainy Crisp felt that her team could have played in the title game and, perhaps, have claimed the program’s eighth state crown.

Fast forward one year later: on Friday the Lady Eagles won the school’s eighth state championship, wrestling the 3A crown away from defending state champ and archrival Tohatchi at the Pit in Albuquerque. The title is Navajo Prep’s first since the 2021 pandemic-shortened hoops season.

After a deadlocked first half, Navajo Prep outscored the Lady Cougars 24 to 9 in the second to produce a 41-26 triumph in the latest chapter of this heated rivalry.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Crisp said of winning the state crown with a veteran team that consisted of six seniors. “We felt the heartache of losing to Santa Fe Indian in the semifinal round. That was a really tough loss for us last year. We made a goal of not letting that happen again.”

The two District 1-3A rivals met for the fifth time this season with Navajo Prep winning the overall series 3-2.

“We knew it was going to be another tough match playing Tohatchi,” Crisp said. “Playing them that many times is tough, but I’m just really happy and excited that the girls were able to get that win.”

The Cougars were the first to score and they gained an 8-2 cushion following a layup from senior Brooke Badonie with 1:57 left in the first period.

A putback from Navajo Prep’s Aniya Johnson cut that margin in half just as the first stanza ended. The Eagles scored on another putback early in the second to get within 11-7 on a bucket from junior post Lailah McGary.

Tohatchi upped its lead back to six points, 13-7, with senior Marisa Denetso scoring in transition.

But the Eagles capped the quarter with a 10-4 rally as the game was tied at 17-all at the break. Junior guard Shiloh Conn ignited that Navajo Prep scoring spurt with a three-pointer while Johnson drew three fouls and hit 5-of-6 at the charity line.

Despite two buckets from Tohatchi’s Bedonie, the Eagles gained the separation they needed by burying treys in the third quarter as Navajo Prep led 29-22 going into the fourth.

The Crisp-coached team added two more treys in the fourth while holding Tohatchi to only four points on the defensive end.

“I felt that we were playing not to lose in that first half,” Crisp said. “We were being extra careful, and we weren’t being aggressive on defense.”

But in the second half, the Eagles played with a different mindset.

“We started to finally play our game,” the Navajo Prep coach said. “We played the type of defense that got us into the state championship game. We were putting pressure on them, and we were able to create points off our defense.

“And we were holding them down to one shot,” she added.

Johnson finished with a team-best 11 points and seven rebounds and she received plenty of help. Conn added nine points on three treys and Billie added eight markers and two three-pointers.

Poser also finished with eight points for Navajo Prep.

“To win it this time means so much to me,” said Johnson, who added that as freshmen they rode the coattails of the then-seniors of the 2021 state championship team.

Badonie led the Cougars with a dozen points and senior Crra Cecil added six and junior guard Yaya Peterson added five.

“We didn’t hit shots and they did,” Tohatchi coach Tanisha Bitsoi said. “I think they wanted it more than we did. They were hungry, a little hungrier than us.”

As a team the Cougars shot10-of-42 from the floor, but the most glaring stat was their 0-for-8 outing from long range.

Navajo Prep, meanwhile, hit 6-of-22 from beyond the three-point arc.

“We really wanted to limit their three-point shooting, and make them earn every basket,” Crisp said. “We really focused on trying to not let them get on a run. We didn’t do so great of that in the first quarter, but we played much better the rest of the game.

“I have to credit our girls for playing great defense because Tohatchi has some great players and great athletes,” she added. “It just so happened that we were able to take this game.”

Following Friday’s girls championship win, the Navajo Prep hoops program had a picture-perfect ending with the boys squad winning its first state crown.

“It’s huge for both programs to take state,” said Crisp, who also serves as the school’s athletic director. “It speaks a lot about our programs and the work that the athletes have been putting in. It’s just awesome for both teams to win state.”

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