Tuba City girls knock off Safford to reach championship game

GLENDALE, Ariz.

The Tuba City Lady Warriors are acquiring a taste for knocking people down.

On Friday night, the Lady Warriors made it two in row as they reeled off the last 10 points to pull off an exciting 56-49 win over the Safford Lady Bulldogs at the Gila River Arena in Glendale Ariz.

The Warriors looked to be down on their luck when Safford, the tournament’s No. 4 seed, took a 49-46 lead with 2:52 to go on a lay-up by sophomore guard Crystal Hasse.

But instead of buckling the Warriors got two straight buckets from an unlikely source as senior Samytha Parrish put in four of her 13 points.

Earlier in the quarter, the Tuba City post got hurt when she got tangled with a Safford player while grabbing for a rebound.

“She’s one of the toughest ones we have and no one is going to take her out of the game, and not on a foul like that,” Tuba City co-head coach Kim Williams, said of Parrish. “Her desire to win and to be a good teammate says a lot about her character. That’s how she is.”

Parrish got her arm twisted in awkward way with seven minutes left in the game. She lay on the court for a few minutes in obvious pain before the athletic trainer whisked her away.

Needless to say, she returned to the game with a chip on her shoulder.

“I’m a senior and I didn’t want to lose this game,” Parrish said, “so I felt like I had to step up.”

Down the stretch, the Warriors iced the game by knocking down 4-of-4 free throws.

In addition to Parrish, the Warriors got 15 points from sophomore forward Keisha Classay.

“I never count my team out, they always find a way to come back,” Williams said when asked if there was any hint of doubt when they were down three points. “I have seven seniors on this team and they want this more than ever before.”

With the win the Warriors move into the Saturday’s championship game with Page, which defeated Winslow 52-48 earlier on Friday.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two schools with Page leading the series at 3-0.

“The odds are in our favor,” Williams said. “I like our odds and having a healthy squad is going to make a difference in our game.”

Williams said she is not anticipating to see anything different but the outcome is going to come down to execution.

“They know us and we know them but I really hope that the kids from both sides will have a good game,” she said. “I know that (Page coach) Justin (Smith) wants to win the game as much as I do but sometimes we just have to let the kids play. They are the ones that worked hard to get here.”

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