Chinle girls win barnburner over Window Rock

FORT DEFIANCE – In a wild finish, the Chinle Lady Wildcats staved off a late Window Rock rally on Saturday night.

The visiting Wildcats gained an 11-point advantage with nearly 2.5 minutes left, but Window Rock nearly canceled out that deficit as a 3-point attempt by Kourtney Bitselley fell to wayside just as time ran out.

With that, Chinle survived with a 46-43 win at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance.

“We’re happy to get our first region win, but it was a struggle,” Chinle coach Francine McCurtain said. “I’m glad the girls played this one out because this conference is really tough. I mean, Window Rock was No. 6 in the standings, but that doesn’t show what all the 3A North teams can do. Every team in our conference can step up and show you what they have.

“It’s going to be like this the whole month of January,” she added. “It’s whoever is ready and tonight I feel like we weren’t ready, but I feel like our experienced players stepped up and pulled us through.”

On Tuesday night, the Wildcats improved to 15-1 overall and 2-0 in the 3A North Region race with a 42-39 win at Page.

Entering Saturday’s game, the Chinle coach had some concerns as the Wildcats last played on Dec. 21. Not only that, half of the team were fighting a respiratory illness.

“We haven’t played for a week and a half, so I knew were going to struggled,” McCurtain said. “We had to get used to playing at that game speed. And with us being sick, you could see some of that today.”

With 2:29 left in the contest, the McCurtain-coached team gained a 42-31 advantage following a basket by senior guard Jayden Lynch.

But the Scouts refused to go down quietly as a 3-pointer by Bitselley (11 points) sparked a game-ending 12-4 run. Senior Devae Willie scored the next seven for Window Rock as her third basket of the quarter cut Chinle’s lead down to 44-41 with 1:01 left.

“We gave ourselves a chance,” said Willie, who finished with team-best 14 points. “You know, Chinle is a good squad, but we just didn’t back down. We just dug deep, and I think the girls just came out with more intensity down the stretch because we never gave up.”

Following a Chinle turnover, the Scouts inched a little closer with a putback by Kelly James (12 points) that made the score 44-43 in the Wildcat’s favor.

At the other end, Chinle’s Qoah Yazzie calmly sank 2-of-2 free throws with 8.3 seconds for a 46-43 lead as the Wildcats exhaled a sigh of relief when Bitselley’s game-tying shot missed its mark.

“I felt pretty confident with my free throws,” Yazzie said. “I knew I had to sink them for us to succeed.”

Yazzie, who was a perfect 6-of-6 at the charity line for the entire contest, conceded that their physical health made it hard for them to play.

“Everyone on our team is coughing, so we played sick,” she said. “Our immune system is not there, and that was a main factor in the game.”

Lynch agreed while adding that the team did not play up to its potential in those final 2.5 minutes.

“It was huge that we got that (11-point) lead, but we didn’t play our best,” Lynch said. “And even though we were sick, we had to play through it. We had to keep going, even though we were tired.”

Chinle, which gained a 9-1 first-quarter lead, was led by senior post Dizhoon White as she finished with 19 points. The Wildcats also received eight points from junior wing Elayah Pete while Lynch and Yazzie added six apiece.

“I can go 10 deep and one of the things we try to do is work the ball inside and use Dizhoon,” McCurtain said. “We did that early but late in the game we had some defensive breakdowns. We just need to stay compose, so we got to do a better job at doing that.”

Like her coach, White said those mishaps late in the game were costly, and it’s something they can clean up.

“We just got to take care of the ball,” she said. “We have to listen to our coaches because I felt like we were rushing things. I know that we can fix those mishaps we had.”

As one of the top teams in the 3A North, White is certain that they’re going to get everyone’s best shot for the rest of the region race.

“We have a target on our backs,” she said. “We have a lot of talent and potential, so everyone is wanting to beat us. We just have to take care of ourselves and push each other.”

On Thursday, Chinle will host Ganado before entertaining Monument Valley on Saturday.

Window Rock (7-10, 0-2 in 3A North play) is scheduled to play Page on Saturday.

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