Unprecedented: KC girls capture 21st state title

ALBUQUERQUE – Two years had elapsed since Kirtland Central girls basketball hoisted a state championship trophy.

On Friday the Lady Broncos reclaimed the Class 4A state title by erasing an eight-point, first-quarter deficit against No. 2 seed St. Pius X at the Pit in Albuquerque.

The top-seeded KC squad held the Lady Sartans to 10 points in the second half as the Broncos pulled away with a 45-33 win.

The latest state championship was KC’s 21st after New Mexico’s most storied program came up short to Gallup in last season’s state title game.

“Special is the right word,” sixth-year KC coach Devon Manning said, describing his team. “From last year to now, I looked at myself in what I needed to do to change a little bit for the program. When it came down to it they weren’t really receptive at the beginning.

“But I think they just bought in from the very beginning when we had to go to Page, Arizona, and play in a tournament with three days of practice,” he added. “We just kind of winged it; we had tough competition and after we won that tournament, I knew we had something special.”

KC finished the season at 29-3 overall, which tied a school record for the most wins in a season. The Broncos first set that mark during last season’s state runner-up finish.

“It’s hard to win that many ball games in a season,” said Manning, whose coach KC to two state titles. “And to have some of these girls to be a part of both teams and be able to do that two years in a row is a pretty remarkable feat.

“It takes a lot of spirit, a lot of heart, a lot of dedication,” he added. “These girls just have that go-win attitude. They’re just very hard to beat.”

The Broncos were down 14-6 in the state title game after one quarter of play. But in the second stanza KC came alive, outscoring St. Pius 18-9.

Eighth-grader guard Allyson Tsosie started the rally with a three-pointer and the Broncos pulled even at 16-16 with 5:45 left following a mini 5-0 run, both buckets courtesy of senior Amber Shorty.

The Sartans broke the tie behind an old-fashioned three-point play from senior guard Alyssa Maes, but the Broncos scored seven straight to go up 24-19 after a three-pointer from sophomore Haylee Nocki with 1:14 left before the half.

The Sartans, however, used a 4-0 run to close KC’s lead down to 24-23 at the break.

“We finally started hitting some shots,” Manning said. “That helps quite a bit with what we wanted to do once we started to score. We were able to get the game going a little bit faster because I thought we played at St. Pius’ pace in that first quarter.”

Points were hard to come by after the break as KC outpointed St. Pius 8-4 in the third period for a 32-27 advantage

The Sartans cut that margin down to three points, 32-29, following a pair of free throws from Maes at the start of the fourth. Nevertheless, the Broncos got some timely baskets from Shorty and Tsosie as the two helped secure KC another state title by combining for nine points in the game’s final five minutes.

Tsosie led the Broncos with 12 points and six rebounds while Shorty added nine markers and Nocki chipped in eight. Senior Emilia Clani added six points and she dished out five assists.

“It’s not by design but we just have a lot of girls that can step up at different times,” Manning said. “We never say we’re going to give this girl the ball to score points. We always have four, five girls who can hit buckets at any time because we have shooters everywhere.

“Emilia hit a big three-pointer there in the second and Ally hit one late in the game,” he added. “And Amber had that quick 4-0 run in that last minute to close it out for us.”

For St. Pius, junior post Macy Freeze led her squad with 12 points while Maes added 11 and junior point Catalina Anaya finished with 10.

As a team, the Sartans went only six-deep the entire contest with those three players and senior Desirey Ortiz playing 30-plus minutes.

“I thought that played quite a bit in our favor,” Manning said. “We knew we were a bit deeper than what St. Pius had, so we knew that we could get into their legs.”

That was quite evident late in the game as KC closed out the game on a 13-4 run.

“I thought that if we shot the ball a bit better in the second half, we could have got the separation we needed in that third quarter,” Manning said. “But I think we really got into their legs in that fourth quarter. They didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. They were missing jump shots and I think the wear and tear of having to deal with our press and trying to run up and down the court took its toll on them.”

With the school’s 21st state title in tow, the KC program is proving to be in a class of its own. They have set the standard in girls basketball in the state of New Mexico. On a side note, the 1999 Kirtland Central girls state championship team was recognized during halftime of Friday’s finale.

“It’s just a testament to the program that we have,” Manning said of the state title haul. “It started back in the 1980s and to this day we continue to be relevant. For the last 40 years, Kirtland has been at least in the state tournament and there have been so many great players, so many great coaches and so many great fans that have helped this program continue to grow.”

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