Strength in numbers: 4 of 5 teams in District 1-3A advances

WINDOW ROCK

The District 1-3A placed five girls in the state playoffs, and four of those squads advanced on Friday night with Crownpoint, Navajo Prep, Tohatchi, and Thoreau earning state quarterfinal berths.

Navajo Prep coach Rainy Crisp said having that many teams in the playoffs speak volume on the strength of the district.

“It’s really good to see five in our district make it in,” she said. “It’s all deserving, and it’s unfortunate that Zuni had to play Thoreau in the first round.”

“It shows how tough of a district we have and how competitive our area is with the sport of basketball,” Tohatchi coach Tanisha Bitsoi said. “With Thoreau playing Zuni, one of our district teams got knocked out, but I’m very happy and excited about our district as a whole.”

Thoreau (18-10) was the first team to advance as the Hawks made easy work of Zuni (14-12) with a 77-46 win.

Thoreau led 23-6 at the end of the opening quarter and increased that to 43-17 at the break.

Junior Leah Delgarito led the Hawks with 24 points, Moniquica Charley added 16, and Kayla Garcia chipped in 10.

Kaitlin Gia finished with a dozen points for Zuni, and Keia Gasper added 10.

Thoreau will take on top seed Las Vegas Robertson in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Robertson High.

Attempts to reach head coach Rachel Becenti went unsuccessful.

Of the four teams to advance, No. 4 seed Navajo Prep (21-6) got some resistance from Santa Fe St. Michael’s as the Eagles pulled away with a 57-47 win.

“They came out strong, and they hit an opening 3-pointer,” Crisp said of St. Mike’s. “They just had a lot of confidence. Every time we tried to pull away, they would come right back, so they didn’t go away lightly.

“We were finally able to hit some shots, and we were able to get some stops,” she said.

Senior Amber Garcia led the Eagles with 17 points while sophomore forward Aniya Johnson finished with a double-double, scoring 16 points while grabbing 11 rebounds.

Navajo Prep will battle Crownpoint on Tuesday at Piedra Vista High for a berth to the state semifinals at 6 p.m.

“It’s wide open,” Crisp said. “You know, we’ve met Crownpoint many times and it just gets tougher each time to pull out a win.”

The Crisp-coached team leads the series with a 2-1 record with the last two meeting being decided by a combined four points, including Crownpoint’s 24-23 triumph in the district tournament last week.

“I expect it to be another great game,” she said. “They’re on very good high right now. They’re on a great roll, so they’re peaking at the right time. It’s going to be another tough one come Tuesday.”

At Crownpoint, the fifth-seeded Eagles (22-7) got 14 points from senior Chaylynn Begay and nine from sophomore Tara Tsosie to post a 57-36 win over No. 12 Tucumcari.

The Eagles hit seven treys, including six in the opening half, leading 27-17 at the break.

“We just played hard, and we gave it our all,” said Begay, who nailed four treys. “We played with a lot of confidence to move onto the second round.”

Incidentally, this was Crownpoint’s first berth into the quarterfinals in over a dozen years.

“I think this is really big,” Crownpoint coach Khadijha Jackson said. “This is something we’ve talked about, breaking this slump of getting past the first round.”

Jackson said it took some time for her squad to get going as both teams went into the second quarter tied at 8-all.

But behind four treys in the second stanza, the Eagles started to distance themselves between them and Tucumcari.

“We started to pick things up with our 3s, and we took advantage of the mismatches we had inside,” Jackson said as seniors Brianna Billie(seven), Madison Kalfsbeck (six), and Erin Etsitty (five) combined for 18 points.

“She stepped up a lot,” the Crownpoint coach said of Kalfsbeck, who came off the bench. “We needed some help inside, especially when we got into foul trouble. She played huge.”

Jackson said she’s looking forward to matching up with Navajo Prep for the fourth time this season.

“It’s going to be another intense game,” she said. “Our defense is going to be a part of the outcome on how we’ll do because I know Navajo Prep is going to come back stronger.”

At Tohatchi, the second-seeded Cougars (21-7) overcame a slow start and defeated No. 15 Cuba 47-31.

Tohatchi was led by sophomore duos Kiana Bia and Marisa Denetso as both players combined for 26 points, with Bia scoring 15 and Denetso chipping in 11.

“We had some big shots from the 3-point line fall for us in the second and third quarter,” Bitsoi said. “It took them a while to get into the flow of the game, and once we did, we got up by as much as 25 points.”

With that, Bitsoi said she went deep into her bench to get them some playing time.

“I wanted them to get a feel of what it’s going to be like the next couple of weeks,” Bitsoi said. “Overall, the girls played really hard, and we played good defense, and we had some of our shots fall.”

Tohatchi will host No. 10 Hatch Valley on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“I’m going to do my homework on them,” Bitsoi said. “I’m going to get film on them from the (NFHS) network and I’ll make some calls to come up with a game plan.”

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