Third time a charm for Winslow girls; Page beats Yuma Catholic 

HOLBROOK

During the regular season the Winslow girls basketball team was swept by its archrival.

The sixth-seeded Lady Bulldogs avenged those two setbacks by turning back Holbrook on Friday night as Winslow advanced into the AIA 3A Final Four round with a 58-53 win.

Also advancing into the semifinals was top-seeded Page as the Lady Sand Devils beat Yuma Catholic by a 57-25 count. 

“This is our third meeting and it’s hard to beat a team three consecutive times,” Winslow coach Jarron Jordan said. “We’ve been in that situation before and, you know, it could have went either way but I’m proud of my kids.”

After seizing a 28-19 cushion at the break the Bulldogs stayed the course even though Holbrook made a couple of runs to make it a one-possession game. As a matter of fact, the Roadrunners had nine opportunities to either tie the game or take the lead.

But each time, Winslow had an answer to keep the third-seeded Roadrunners at bay.

“Hats off to coach (Greg) Perkins and his kids,” Jordan said of the Roadrunners. “His kids played well and we knew Holbrook was going to make a run. They cut it down to one, but our kids stayed calm and collective.”

In their first meeting, Jordan said Holbrook beat his team “pretty handily” and in their rematch earlier this month they missed some key free throws.

“We lost a lot of those 50/50 balls too but we really challenged our kids,” he said. “Our kids were all over the place and they played tenacious defense tonight.”

One of the biggest defensive plays came late in the game when freshman guard Jaci Gonnie forced a turnover with 18 seconds left with her team leading 54-51. She caught the Roadrunners off-guard as she stole the ball just as Holbrook was in-bounding the ball under Winslow’s side of the court.

“That’s the 50/50 balls we couldn’t win last time,” Jordan said. 

The Roadrunners were forced to foul and Gonnie’s two free throws put the game out of reach. Winslow will play No. 2 seed Snowflake on Wednesday with the winner advancing into next Saturday’s championship game. Snowflake defeated No. 7 seed Show Low, 45-37.

The Bulldogs were led by senior Oniah Barton-Paddock as she finished with 18 points. Half of those points came at the end of the second quarter as she spurred Winslow to that nine-point halftime cushion.

“This was kind of a breakout game for me,” Barton said. “I want to thank my teammates for helping me get open and I’m just glad that I was able to hit those shots.”

The Bulldogs also got nine points each from Sierra Singer and Gonnie while Aryisa Tso added eight.

The Roadrunners were led by senior post Matehya Aberle, who finished with 17 points. Terry Nez and Abigail Benally added nine and eight, respectively.

In the top half of the bracket, Page advanced to its fifth consecutive Final Four under the tenure of head coach Ryan Whitehorse.

The Sand Devils got off to a great start in the opening quarter as they opened up a 27-4 cushion against Yuma Catholic. 

In the next quarter, however, points were hard to come by for the home team as Page only scored four points while Yuma Catholic tallied 13.

At the half, Page’s lead was trimmed to 31-17.

“We came out really aggressive in the first quarter, but Yuma Catholic did a good job of changing their defense,” Whitehorse said. “They slowed us down in that second quarter and that was the first time we struggled against their stubborn zone.”

The Page coach said they made some adjustments and that showed as they led 51-21 going into the fourth.

“We lost that second quarter but at halftime we regrouped to get through their zone,” he said. “The girls did a good job of executing what we needed to do.”

Offensively, the Sand Devils were paced by seniors Neve Redhair and Torrance Begay as each player scored 17 points. Junior Miquedah Taliman added seven while Nadia Begay and Emma Yazzie both contributed six apiece.

“We just had different girls step up,” Whitehorse said.

The Sand Devils will play No. 4 Thatcher on Wednesday at Page High. Thatcher got past No. 5 Valley Christian 45-28 in Friday’s quarterfinals.

“I don’t know anything about Thatcher,” Whitehorse said. “I’ve seen some film on them here and there and they won the 2A state title last year for a reason. They kind of remind a little of Snowflake. They’re athletic and they’re quick like Snowflake.”

 

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