Valley girls capture 2A North tournament: Pirates set to host play-in game

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Feb 9, 2023 | Basketball |

EAGER, Ariz.

The Valley girls basketball team picked a good night to be hitting on all cylinders Saturday night.

The Lady Pirates upended top-seed Round Valley in the championship game of the 2A North Region tournament with a 61-52 win, beating the Elks for the first time this season.

“We played very well, and everyone had a chip in the game,” longtime Valley coach Dorothy Michell said. “All the girls shot well, and they were very confident shooting. We even had some girls coming off the bench shooting, so it was a good game overall.”

Game stats for Valley were not available at press time, but Mitchell said the Pirates were led by junior point guard Kaelynn Nez.

In the rebounding department, the Valley coach said senior post Madison Yazzie played one of her better games this season.

“She did a great job of boxing out and getting rebounds,” Mitchell said. “She got some putbacks when we needed them.”

The nine-point triumph extended Valley’s winning streak to six games entering today’s 2A state playoffs.

Navajo Times | Quentin Jodie
Valley Lady Pirate Cheneil Spean (right) ties up Round Valley’s Brenli Haws for a loose ball on Feb. 3 in the 2A North Region semifinal game.

The Pirates earned the No. 9 seed and they will host No. 24 Chandler Prep tonight at 7 p.m. in the play-in game. The winner advances into the 16-team state bracket.

“We’re just going to play it game-by-game and see how it goes,” Mitchell said of the playoffs.

To earn that top ranking, the Valley coach said it took a team effort.

“All season, they kept pushing every game to get into the top 10,” she said. “They put their minds to it, and they decided that this what they wanted from the beginning, so it was a team decision.”

Nez said their hard work is coming to fruition as the Pirates are looking to make a much deeper run in the playoffs this season. Last year, Valley was ousted in the Round of 16, losing to St. Johns Paul II by a 60-38 count.

“We want to go further than that,” Nez said, while adding that they’re ready for the playoffs.

“We’ve been playing hard to get where we’re at,” she said. “We just got to keep our composure and don’t let the other teams get into our heads.

“We just got play how we play,” she added.

With it being the playoffs, Mitchell said it was hard to say if her team is peaking at the right time.

“I can’t gauge them to tell you the truth,” she said. “You know, they’ll have their lights on in one game and then they won’t in the next game.

“It’s hard to say how they’ll come out,” she said. “But if we come out energized, we’re gonna win. It has to be them wanting to win.”