Valley girls reaches Division IV finals

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz.

In another dominating performance, the Valley girls basketball team proved its staying power for this year’s Arizona Division IV state playoffs.

With the win, the Pirates extended their winning streak to seven games and improved their overall record to 28-3.

As the No. 3 seed, the Lady Pirates jumped out to an 18-3 lead over No. 7 seed Arizona Lutheran before advancing into Saturday morning’s state finals with a 51-34 win.

Valley awaits the winner of Phoenix Christian and Phoenix Country Day, which played the late game on Friday night. The winner of that game will play Valley at 11 a.m. at the events center in Prescott Valley.

“We played them tough inside with rebounding,” Valley coach Julia Six said. “They were pretty good with their vertical jumps, so I told the girls we have to be aggressive right from the start.”

With that said, the Pirates applied pressure with their press and recorded nine steals in the opening quarter to jumpstart their offense.

Senior guard Tamara Nez scored 10 of her 16 points in the opening quarter, as Valley led the Lady Coyotes 16-3.

In the next quarter, Valley tallied 13 points while holding Arizona Lutheran to seven points for a 29-10 cushion at the break.

That margin proved to be the difference in their 17-point win.

“Once we got that lead, we started to slow things,” Six said. “That’s when I started to sub players in and out.”

All told, the Pirates had nine players score at least two points with Nez leading the way.

Latisha Nastacio helped out with nine points followed by Cherelle Speen’s seven points.

“We had pretty good teamwork today,” Six said. “The girls were looking for each other on our fast breaks.”

Six is hoping to see that concerted effort in Saturday’s championship game.

For Arizona Lutheran, Ruth Buchholz had 10 points.

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