Kirtland Central snaps Gallup’s perfect season with dominant defensive performance

By Lee Begaye
Special to the Times

KIRTLAND, N.M. – The Kirtland Central Lady Broncos (16-2) handed the Gallup Lady Bengals (17-1) their first loss of the season with a commanding 52-38 victory at home in front of a capacity crowd.

The Lady Broncos’ relentless full-court pressure overwhelmed Gallup’s frontcourt, forcing more than 20 turnovers that translated into 26 points for Kirtland Central.

Ranked No. 2 behind the Lady Broncos on MaxPreps, Gallup entered the game averaging 70.9 points per game while holding opponents to 28.8. But Kirtland’s defense flipped the script, as the Broncos extended their four-game winning streak over Gallup in this series, which dates back to last season.

“I like our guards against any guards,” Kirtland Central head coach Devon Manning said. “They are after every ball, and they hustle. Our defense feeds our offense—I can’t complain. Our girls outplayed them.”

The KC coach attributed the 14-point win to the tough schedule the Broncos played before the start of the district season that got underway last Thursday against Shiprock.

“This is the game we’ve been preparing for,” Manning said. “We faced eight 5A schools, some of the best guards and post players in the state. Now we need to go down to Gallup and try to beat them again.”

Junior guard Haylee Nocki led the Lady Broncos with 21 points, which was evenly distributed across all four quarters. Sophomore guard Elaina Clani added 11 points, and freshman Allyson Tsosie contributed nine.

Gallup, which played without senior guard Alysa Slinkey, was led by senior center Rylie Whitehair who finished with 14 points. Sophomore forward Kayden Tsosie was Gallup’s next best scorer as she chipped in seven.

“Next game, we’ll get Alysa back,” Gallup coach Todd McBroom said. “She’s one of our top guards and not having her made it difficult tonight. This is round one of what could be a five-game series. We just lost the first one.”

Gallup struggled to find its rhythm early, going scoreless for the first three minutes until Tsosie broke through with a bucket. Meanwhile, the Lady Broncos opened with a 7-0 run before Gallup’s sophomore Payton Johnson added a layup at the 3:49 mark, cutting the lead to 7-4.

Both teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter, which ended with Kirtland holding a narrow 12-10 lead with Nocki sinking in two 3-pointers for the Lady Broncos while junior Krista Tsingine-Yazzie added four.

Gallup saw balanced scoring with sophomore guard Marie Nez and junior forward Caina Cooper-Randles both hitting 3-pointers, and Johnson and Tsosie contributing a bucket each.

The Bengals briefly tied the game at 12-12 early in the second quarter, but KC responded with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes, taking a 20-12 lead by the 4:11 mark.

At the break, the Broncos led 26-16 with Nocki and Zoey Benally doing the most damage by putting up five points each.

For Gallup, the Bengals mustered six points in that second period with Yazzie scoring four while Whitehair nailed a pair of free throws.

The impact of Kirtland’s defensive intensity was particularly felt inside as Gallup could not establish its post presence.

“We’ve seen teams press before—Farmington pressed us, and we were able to break it in three or four minutes—but tonight they were more aggressive,” McBroom said. “We didn’t enter the ball into the post for our big players, and that changed the game.”

Kirtland maintained a double-digit lead through most of the third quarter, but a shooting drought allowed Gallup to chip away at the deficit in the fourth. The Lady Broncos went 0-for-8 from the field and just 1-for-2 at the free-throw line during a three-and-a-half-minute stretch.

Gallup capitalized, scoring eight points off fouls, with Whitehair and Dixon combining to hit 6-of-7 free throws, closing the gap to 39-34.

The Lady Broncos snapped out of their slump as Tsosie and Nocki reignited the offense. Nocki drained a 3-pointer to end the drought, followed by Tsosie going 2-for-2 from the line and scoring on a drive to extend the lead to 48-38.

Nocki added a breakaway layup to cap the run.

“We were shooting ourselves out of the lead, taking too many quick 3s,” Manning said. “We’re not going to win an offensive battle on the glass against Gallup, so we had to be strategic.

“That 3-pointer to get us back in control came after a few good passes to get us in rhythm,” he continued. “Gallup was in the bonus with five minutes left, so I’m sure their strategy was to score from the free-throw line without the clock moving.”

Gallup did visit the free throw line frequently by going 10-of-16 from the charity line in that final quarter, but they were unable to close the gap.

Both teams will be in action on Thursday with KC hosting Miyamura (1-17) while Gallup will look to rebound by hosting Bloomfield (10-7).

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