Farmington’s unselfish play shines in 5A quarterfinals: Scorps to play district rival Sandia next round

ALBUQUERQUE – Unselfish play from the Farmington girls basketball team paid big dividends for the Lady Scorps on Tuesday afternoon.

The third-seeded Farmington squad hit 30-of-61 shots with 22 of those baskets coming off assists as the Scorps overwhelmed Las Cruces Organ Mountain, 65-31, in the Class 5A state quarterfinals at the Pit on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque.

“They love passing the ball,” Farmington coach Thomas Adair said of his club. “So if someone’s got a better shot than they do, they’re gonna give it up and we did a good job attacking.”

Farmington (26-4) plays district rival Sandia (26-3) at 9:45 a.m. Thursday at the Pit. The second-seeded Sandia team features a pair of Diné players in sisters Sydney and Kaiyah Benally. The Benally siblings combined for 37 points in leading the Lady Matadors to a 64-40 win over Eldorado.

Sydney, a junior, found her comfort zone and made 7-of-12 shots, including 5-of-6 from beyond the three-point arc, as she finished with a game-best 21 points.

“I wasn’t paying attention to the (three-point) line on the floor, I was just letting it go,” Sydney said on her torrid shooting.

“Just playing on the Pit floor is a lot of fun,” she added.

Her eighth-grade sister, Kaiyah, added 16 points on 6-of-7 attempts but played a bigger role on the defensive end in helping slow down Eldorado junior sensation Bella Hines, who finished with 20 points, which is 17 below her average.
Hines, who has 40 Division I offers including one from defending women’s national champion LSU, did not go off as she normally does thanks to Kaiyah and Sandia sophomore Chloe Brown.

Hines had eight first-quarter points but she was held scoreless for nearly two quarters as Sandia pulled away from Eldorado.

“My main priority on the court was to play defense and I just had to just focus on Bella,” Kaiyah said.

Sandia coach Lee Kettig praised the play of Kaiyah Benally and Brown as the two players “bought into” putting a body on Hines throughout the game.

“They enjoyed it and they embraced it,” Kettig said. “When one needs a break, the other comes in and so it’s just a real blessing to have two kids embracing the challenge.”

After a 16-16 first-quarter stalemate, the Matadors opened up a 35-19 halftime cushion with Sydney scoring 13 points, including three treys.

The Matadors extended that margin to 53-26 before winning by 24 points, sending Sandia one game further than last season’s quarterfinal run.

“I think it does pay off having experience on the Pit floor,” Sydney said. “During my sophomore year, just getting all the jitters out playing on it for the first time against the No. 1 team (Hobbs).

“It was really an eye-opener and now coming into my junior year I felt calmer,” she added. “I was able to ease myself and my teammates.”

Farmington

In addition to the 22 assists, the Scorps forced 33 turnovers, 22 of them steals, in their lopsided win over Organ Mountain.

Of those Organ Mountain turnovers, Farmington cashed in with 36 points as four players reached double figures. Senior Kapiolani Anitielu led the Scorps with 15 points while sophomores Caris Dale and Kjani Anitielu (Kapiolani’s younger sister) finished with 14 points apiece. Farmington also received 10 points from junior post Ayana Toledo.

“We’ve been playing really good defense,” Adair said. “We did that against Eldorado in the district tournament. We played just awesome defense. And so we’ve been getting turnovers and then we want a score off of our defense, and these guys spearhead that.

“When you have athletes like these guys (Kapiolani and Kjani Anitielu) and Caris Dale, Maleah Charlie and Ayana (Toledo) it makes a big difference,” he added. “Ayana gets a bunch of steals in the back end of that press because of her quick hands and her quick feet.”

The Scorps made it look easy turning defense into offense. Kapiolani credited the team’s cohesiveness as the driving force.

“I was just more of coming here and just giving it our best effort and making sure everybody’s involved,” Kapiolani said.

Thursday’s semifinal game with Sandia will be the fourth meeting between the two squads. The first three were won on the home team’s home court with Sandia owning a 2-1 lead in the series.

“It’s gonna be a classic battle,” Adair said. “I’m excited for it and I think we all knew we were going to end up playing Sandia. They’re a great team and there’s no weaknesses on their team.

“I think the team that plays the best team ball and the best defense is going to come out on top,” he added. “We want to capitalize on that and we want to make sure we don’t foul because they don’t miss free throws. We want to attack them and put them in a difficult position and get to the line.”

“We just have to communicate, have more ball movement and our defense has to step up,” Kapiolani said. “We have to make sure we play with high intensity, putting pressure on the ball.”

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