Window Rock girls handcuff Ganado in 3A North Region game

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

FORT DEFIANCE – Defense and rebounding carried the day for the Window Rock girls basketball team on Tuesday night.

The Lady Scouts (10-2) rebounded from a one-point loss to Page on Saturday night with a surprisingly 60-34 dominant win over Ganado at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Scouts Event Center in Fort Defiance.

“That is what we preached with the girls,” Window Rock coach Gabby Whitney said. “We haven’t played good defense in our previous games, so that is exactly what we worked on in practice.

“We also harped on rebounding,” she added. “We watched film on (Ganado) when we played them at Epic. One of the things that we had to fix was our rebounding. We had to get the boards, and they had to be one-and-done and that is exactly what they did, they boarded.”

Earlier this month, the Whitney-coached team eked out a 36-34 victory over the Lady Hornets (3-8) in the title game at the Epic Tourneys New Year’s Classic in Phoenix on Jan. 3 at Higley High School.

In Tuesday’s 3A North Region matchup, the game had some similarities to that contest as Ganado overcame a 4-0 deficit. The Hornets got rolling with a putback by sophomore Jordan Claw, which was followed by a two-point shot from senior post Shawntaya Smith.

Senior guard Jasah McIntosh then nailed a 3-pointer that earned Ganado a 7-4 lead with 4:31 left in the opening quarter.

Window Rock, however, found a new gear with its defensive intensity. The Scouts cashed in on three turnovers and regained the momentum by closing out the first stanza on a 11-3 run, which included a late 3-pointer from senior Kelly James for a 15-10 advantage.

Window Rock continued to hound the Ganado ballhandlers as the Scouts opened a 25-13 cushion midway through the second stanza behind a pair of 3s from freshman guard Naomi James.

The lead was stretched to 38-22 at the break as Ganado made 4-of-13 shots down the stretch while the Scouts received a pair of treys from senior Kourtney Bitselley and Kelly James.

“For the past couple of games since the break, we haven’t been playing like we’re used to,” Ganado coach Abigail Benally said. “We haven’t been playing at our best and right now, I’m trying to figure out the what the issue is. I mean, these girls are very capable of doing good things.”

Benally, who took over the reins of the program on Dec. 22, attributed the team’s struggles to miscommunication.

“We made a lot of mistakes, and we just had a breakdown in communication,” she said. “One thing that we can take from this is accountability and just being team players. I think that kind of showed tonight because some people were on one page, and some people were on the other.”

She also added that Window Rock shot lights outs as the Scouts nailed five treys in the opening half. The Scouts carried that momentum into the second half as Window Rock enforced the 30-point mercy rule before Ganado cut the lead down to 26 points at the end of the game.

“A lot of their shots fell for them, and a lot of our shots didn’t fall for us,” she said. “I’m not disappointed with the girls, but what I’m disappointed with is we weren’t doing the easy things right. We weren’t doing the simple things that we needed to do to keep us in the game.”

Edison led Window Rock with 17 points while Naomi James and Bitselley added 10 each.

For Ganado, Claw and Smith both finished with six each.

 

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