Window Rock girls flex its muscle inside in win over 2A Valley

FORT DEFIANCE – It took nearly one half for the Window Rock Lady Scouts to find stable ground.

The Scouts (1-0) couldn’t quite shake the 2A Valley Lady Pirates in their season opener on Nov. 15 at the Bee Hó?dzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance.

Valley hit five early treys and led 21-20 at the start of the second stanza before the much taller Scout team pulled away with a 66-52 win.

“It’s always good to get that first win, but it was an ugly win,” Window Rock coach Gabrielle Whitney said. “We have a lot of things to fix and do as a team, so I’m not satisfied with how we played.”

With the size advantage, the Window Rock coach felt that her squad didn’t go inside to start last Wednesday’s contest. But in the second half the Lady Scouts exploited the size difference with senior post Jada Brown putting in 16 of her 22 points.

“Our inside game is there and we had to look for it,” Whitney said. “We have some tall post players and we need to utilize them.”

The Window Rock team also got 14 points from senior Jayme Tso and a quiet 13 from guard Melecia Nelson.

“They’re all dangerous players,” Whitney said of her returning veterans. “Once we start playing as a team, and once we start coming together we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

Whitney said Brown can be an unstoppable force down low while Nelson and Tso are all-around players.

“Jada has some post,” she said. “She has the footwork and she can attack aggressively.”

As for her two other seniors, the Window Rock coach said both players can play any position.

“They can shoot and create,” Whitney said of her two guards. “They’re so versatile so I can put them anywhere on the court.”

With nothing to lose stepping up versus 3A competition, the Lady Pirates saw some early success with senior guard Kaelynn Nez and sophomore Trinity Mitchell combining for 15 points in the opening stanza.

Nez hit a pair of treys while Trinity Mitchell added one as Valley led 18-17 after one quarter of play. A three-pointer from Mitchell at the 7:11 mark in the next quarter gave Valley its last lead of the night.

The Lady Scouts then used a 14-2 run to go up 34-23 at the break.

“We just went cold,” Valley coach Dorothy Mitchell said. “Our shots weren’t going in and we just couldn’t buy a basket.”

The longtime Valley coach acknowledged that Window Rock’s height bothered her team, especially in the second half.

“We don’t have that many bigs,” Mitchell said. “I start a lot of guards and when we do send in a big, they’re not used to playing that No. 5 position.”

The Pirates were led by Nez as she had a team-best 20 points while Trinity Mitchell added 18.

“They’re so competitive,” Dorothy Mitchell said of her guards. “One of those two players has to take over that leadership role and I’m hoping it’ll come by December.

“We need to establish that leadership because right now nobody’s talking and nobody is saying ‘Let’s do this’,” she added. “We just have a quiet locker room and hopefully we can find that leader so that we can get on a roll.”

On Saturday night, Valley played its second 3A opponent, Monument Valley. In that contest, MV won 78-55.

“We like to play 3A schools,” Dorothy Mitchell said. “It gets us ready for the end of the season. Hopefully, we’ll see a good turnout at the end of the season.”

In the meantime, the Valley coach is looking to shore up some things that need addressing.

“We’re going to work on communication,” Mitchell said. “We also need to play better defense. We’re not rotating fast enough and that’s because of not communicating.”

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