To’hajiilee wins district race

TO’HAJIILEE, N.M.

Defense has kept the To’hajiilee girls on top.

On Saturday, the Lady Warriors capped the regular season with a 54-42 win over district foe Pine Hill.

That 12-point earned the Lady Warriors a top finish in District 1-1A as it went undefeated with an 8-0 mark.

“It feels pretty good,” said first-year To’hajiilee coach Thomas Sullivan, whose team improved to 17-4 overall. “You know they progressed every game, we just got better at every game, and that is what we talk about. We’re not looking at ultimate goals; we just tried to get better every game.”

As the district’s top seed, To’hajiilee will get a bye into Friday’s championship, as it hosts the surviving team that gets out of the five-team bracket.

In the regular-season finale, To’hajiilee led 26-13 at the break, and it extended that margin to as much as 24 points.

Pine Hill, however, used an 11-6 run at the start of the fourth to get within 48-36.

“We’ve been doing that a lot,” Sullivan said. “We’ll get out to a big lead, and it’s hard for our girls to stay focused. We’ll get into a little bit of a lull there.”

After a 55-42 non-district setback to Roswell Gateway Christian, To’hajiilee has won six straight to end the regular season.

“They have really come together,” Sullivan said. “We’re probably playing our best ball when we were playing in the Striking Eagle tournament in December.

“The defense has been coming on really strong,” he added. “That’s our strength right now.”

Offensively, To’hajiilee was led by Makayla Yazzie’s 15 points in the win over Pine Hill. The Warriors also got a dozen points from senior Erynn Montehermoso.

For Pine Hill, sophomore Virances Martinez had 13, and senior Bailey Nez chipped in 12.

Pine Hill coach Carlett Daniels said they dug themselves an early hole and attributed that to To’hajiilee spreading the floor.

“They got their biggest lead when they spread us out,” he said. “Other than that, we played with them.

“We lost to them the first time by nine, and then we lost to them by 12, so we’re almost there,” he added. “We just had a horrible third quarter, and we had an amazing fourth quarter, and we made it a game out of it.”

Daniels stated that his team has to limit their turnovers to give them a chance to win against a quality team like To’hajiilee.

“We had like 20 turnovers today, and you can’t win a game like that,” he said.

With a 9-9 record heading into the district tournament, Daniels said he likes their chances as they would have played Ramah last night for the right to take on To’hajiilee.

Boys

On Saturday, the Pine Hill boys secured the second seed by defeating To’hajiilee by a 78-43 count.

After a slow start, Pine Hill started to pull away from the home team as they led 19-6 after one-quarter of play.

At the half, it was extended to 34-17, and at the end of third, the score was 59-32.

Pine Hill added another 17 points in the fourth in its runaway win.

Sophomore Elias Andrew led the team with 20 while senior Beau Duboise added 10.

“This game was getting them some confidence,” said Pine Hill coach Tyrell Daniels, who played all 15 guys that suited up.

“I’m getting some of my benches some reps, and having some fun,” he said. “Sometimes basketball isn’t so fun. It can be stressful, and the games are tough.

“This was a breath of fresh air for us,” he added. “It’s helping us get reenergized for what’s coming up.”

With Ramah getting the automatic bid for state by winning the district, Daniels said they would need to win the tournament to make the 1A playoffs.

“That is what we’re going for now,” Daniels said while adding that they came up short to Ramah two times.

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