Tuba girls takedown San Carlos in title game
Special to the Times | Reginald Chee
Tuba City Lady Warrior Layla Curtis (24) leads the fast break as Liberty Lady Lion defenders try to catch up to her in the Epic New Year's Basketball Classic at Williams Field High School gym in Gilbert, Ariz. on Saturday, Jan. 04.
By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK – The championship game of the girls Cactus bracket at the 2025 Epic Tourneys pitted the Tuba City Lady Warriors and the San Carlos Lady Braves.
Tuba overcame a slow start as they wore down the Braves with a 51-39 win on Saturday at Williams Fields High School in Gilbert, Arizona.
“It was close in the first quarter,” Tuba City coach Pete Butler said. “San Carlos took an 8-2 lead on us, so I had to call timeout to kill their run.”
That timeout paid off, Butler said, as the Warriors gained a 15-9 advantage heading into the second.
“From there, we broke away and we were ahead 33-18 at halftime,” Butler said. “In that second quarter, we played some good defense, and we got our transition going. We were able to run our set offenses consistently and we were able to maintain the lead.
And although his club got a bit “stagnant” after the break, the Warriors did not surrender the advantage they had.
“We stopped doing the things that we did to get us ahead,” Butler said. “We stopped scoring the way we should have, and we weren’t as composed. We started relying on 3-point shots and they were not falling, so I had to call another timeout and regroup them.”
In the fourth, Tuba pushed its lead to as much as 20 points before Butler pulled his starters to give his bench some playing time.
“San Carlos is pretty tough,” he said. “They’re a tough scrappy team.”
At the two-day tournament, Butler said they installed a new defensive scheme as they are looking to use its upcoming game in the 3A North.
“We put in a new type of press, and we wanted to see how well it worked for us,” he said.
In the earlier games, Tuba defeated 5A school Buckeye 60-32 in pool play. The Warriors then beat 4A school ALA-Gilbert 67-28 in the first round in bracket play that set them up with 6A school Liberty. The Butler-coached team moved into the title game after earning a 59-43 win over Liberty in the semifinal.
“We were tested,” Butler said of Liberty. “It was nip-and-tuck for a while, and it was like a chess match between me and the Liberty coach. It was an experience for our girls to play a tough-minded game like that.
“They had to be in the game mentally,” he continued, “and we were able to pull out the win over Liberty.”
The Tuba coach praised the tournament committee for putting together a good tournament.
“It was competitive, and I like the way it was formatted,” he said. “It gave us a chance to play some of the top-tier teams down in the Valley. It gave us a chance to gauge how we need to develop as a program, you know, to be an elite team. We got some good games and I believe it will help us to prepare for the upcoming region games.”
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