‘We really don’t panic’

Winslow rallies to win quarterfinals

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz.

Being down by five points late in the contest is nothing new for the Winslow girls’ basketball team.

The No. 6 seeded Lady Bulldogs (23-5) faced that dilemma on Monday during the quarterfinals of the Arizona 3A state playoffs as they rallied past No. 14 Window Rock by a 59-56 count at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley.

“We really don’t panic,” Winslow coach Jerron Jordan said. “We’ve been in this situation a lot of times this season. It’s not the situation we want to be in, but having our strength of schedule and being in games to where we were down late shows a lot of discipline.”

With 2:24 left in the contest, Winslow saw its hopes of staying alive in the tournament in jeopardy as Window Rock led 54-49 when junior Jana Solee hit two free throws.

But the Bulldogs slapped on their full court press and that pressure yielded five straight turnovers as Winslow closed out the final two minutes of the contest on 10-2 run.

“I told my girls that it’s not going to happen in one play but let’s chip away a little at a time so we had to tighten our defense,” he said. “We threw that press on them and while we didn’t get a whole lot off of it … it sped up the game.”

In those final two minutes, Winslow went to the line 16 times and they made half of their free throws.

“We have to clean up our free throw,” Jordan said. “Both teams missed some key charities down the stretch.”

Despite their struggles, the Bulldogs made that up with their tenacious defense. They also boarded three offensive rebounds for five second-chance points.

“Window Rock made a couple of tough passes and we were able to turn them over,” Jordan said. “We also won those 50/50 balls late in the game and that was key.”

Window Rock coach Sharon Toadecheenie said they played well in spurts but they buckled in the last two minutes of the contest.

“Of course they put some pressure on us but we had a couple of lay-ups that didn’t go in,” she said. “I think that was the turning point. We did make a run on them but missing those lay-ups cost us to lose the momentum.”

---