Navajo Prep, Gallup girls capture state crowns

ALBUQUERQUE – The New Mexico Activities Association doled out three state championship crowns in girls hoops on Friday at the Pit in Albuquerque.

Two of those state titles went to a pair of area teams with the Navajo Prep girls repeating as the 3A state champs. The top-seeded Lady Eagles (26-5) used an 18-2 run in the last seven minutes to secure a 52-43 win over No. 2 West Las Vegas.

The Gallup Lady Bengals, meanwhile, defeated district rival Kirtland Central for the 4A crown in the late game.

Behind the play senior post Rylie Whitehair and sophomore forward Kayden Tsosie the second-seeded Bengals (30-2) used its size to pull away from No. 1 seed KC 61-51 before a capacity crowd.

Whitehair scored 17 points and pulled down a dozen rebounds while Tsosie added 12 points, eight rebounds and five blocks.

“It’s a great experience,” Gallup coach Todd McBroom said of the electric atmosphere at the Pit. “You know, when us and Kirtland get together it makes for a great environment.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s at our place or here at the Pit, it’s always a great environment,” he added. “It’s fun to play in these games.”

The much anticipated matchup between the 4A powerhouses featured 13 lead changes and three ties. Most of those trends happened in the opening half as KC took a 22-21 lead at the break.

The Broncos (28-4) took its last lead at 31-30 with 3:37 remaining in the third quarter on a basket from sophomore guard Elani Clani.

Gallup then capped the quarter with a 9-4 run to go up 39-35 heading into the fourth. To get the separation they needed, the Bengals scored the first seven points in the next stanza as Gallup built its largest lead at 46-35 after a 3-pointer from Tsosie with 4:51 left.

“Credit to the kids, they played fantastic defense,” McBroom said of their second half surge. “It was our best defensive effort of the year. (We) contested shots and when they got by us we had people by the rim, protecting, changing shots.

“It was a total team effort on the defensive end,” he added. “That’s what created the separation.”

Kirtland Central, which was led by sophomore Zoey Benally’s 10 points, finished the last 11-plus minutes by going 3-of-14 from the field.

“I just thought that we were a little passive tonight on the offensive end,” KC coach Devon Manning said. “I thought early on, we were in attack mode. We just missed some layups early.

“If we make those layups early, I think we have a little bit of a different ball game,” he added. “I think the girls would get a little more confident as the game goes on, and maybe have a four, six point lead at halftime instead of a one-point lead.”

In the 3A championship tilt, Navajo Prep used that monumental late rally to erase what was once a 47-41 West Las Vegas (24-6) lead with seven-plus minutes.
But the Eagles went into beast mode to win the program’s ninth state crown, including five under head coach Rainy Crisp.

“That is what we’ve been working on the whole state tournament, which is being mentally strong,” Crisp said. “We saw a little bit of that early in the tournament where we got frustrated with ourselves, but it really comes down to encouraging each other, getting defensive stops, (playing) one possession at a time, getting offensive and defensive rebounds helps out a lot.”

With the win, the Eagles successfully defended its state crown from one year ago despite losing some core players like Aniya Johnson and Tru Billie.

“It was tough,” Navajo Prep senior guard Lailah McGary said of winning back-to-back state crowns. “At the beginning of the season we were looked down by a lot of people just because we lost some (key) players last year.”

Nonetheless, the Eagles once again showed its championship pedigree as the starters worked together on both ends of the court during that pivotal stretch.

“It’s really tough to have a run like that, especially with a team like that,” Navajo Prep senior Shiloh Conn said of West Las Vegas. “It’s just all about the momentum that we had off and on the bench.”

Offensively, sophomore post Lelani Wood and senior forward Kassidy Jones led the Eagles with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

For West Las Vegas, senior Alexis Pacheco finished a game-best 16 points.

“We beat ourselves,” West Las Vegas coach Victor Ulibarri said of his teams’ demise. “We pretty much beat ourselves. There at the end, just a lot of missed layups that we could have capitalized on, to push the lead up to double digits.

“We just came up a little bit short there at the end,” he added.

For a more in depth story pick up Thursday’s Navajo Times.

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