Team effort sends MV girls to 3A state quarterfinal

KAYENTA – The manner of scoring was spread across seven players.

Of those players, four reached double figures as the Monument Valley girls basketball team advanced into the quarterfinal of the Arizona Interscholastic Association 3A state bracket on Monday night.

The seventh-seeded Mustangs (10-8 overall) pulled away from 10th seed American Leadership Academy-West Foothills in the fourth quarter as MV posted a 67-56 win at the Nash Center at Monument Valley High School.

“This is the first game that we’ve actually played four quarters,” MV coach Sophia Patterson said. “I’m just so proud of the girls for coming together. It’s so crucial to have everyone step up and contribute.”

The Mustangs were led by senior post Keiryn Mann as she put in a game-high 23 points. MV also had junior guard Kanon Dalton help out with 13 points while freshman guard Meggan Sandoval and senior forward Dineh Parrish added 10.

“We did this as a team,” Mann said. “We were really focused with our defense, and our team defense is what gets our offense going. I have to give a shout out to Dineh for coming in with her points and rebounds.

“She gave us a spark on offense, and we just carried that rhythm over,” she added.

Mann also credited senior forward Skylynn Raye on the defensive end as she was tasked in helping slow down ALA-West Foothills guard/forward Izabella Juarez.

The ALA-West Foothills junior finished with a team-best 21 points, but Juarez had to earn them.

“She’s a great ball player and we really had to focus on trying to shut her down for us to get our rhythm going, but she wasn’t easy to shut down,” Mann said of Juarez. “We put Skylynn Raye on her, and she did a really good job.”

In a game of mini-runs, the Mustangs used a 6-0 spurt at the start of the fourth to open up a 56-46 cushion after Dalton hit a transition layup with 5:58 left in the contest.

“I have to credit their team,” Patterson said of the Guardians of ALA-West Foothills. “They hung in there, but we also played great. It’s the first time I’ve seen my girls play that way.”

The Guardians cut that 10-point deficit down to 58-51 following a 3 by Juarez with just over four minutes left, but the Mustangs never wavered.

An old-fashioned 3-point play from Parrish got MV going as the Mustangs scored nine of the next 11 points for a 67-53 cushion.

“We stayed with it until third quarter,” ALA-West Foothills coach Cara Hill said. “But then we started to lose some of our energy.

“We started to make some silly mistakes with turnovers,” she added. “We were not boxing, too, which hurt us because they got second, third opportunities. Unfortunately, that usually ends up in a score.”

ALA-West Foothills, which finished second in 3A West Region, capped its season at 14-4 overall.

“We’ve had some ups and downs with injuries, but they’re resilient,” Hill said of her team. “We had a really good season, and we wish nothing but luck for Monument Valley as they go through the rest of the playoffs.”

With the 11-point win, MV moves into the next round as the Mustangs will face No. 3 seed Snowflake on Friday night. The two teams faced each other in the first round of the AIA Copper Bracket last week. In that contest, the Lady Lobos pulled away with a 52-44 win on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at Snowflake High School.

“I think we have to play together,” Mann said of Friday’s game. “When we played them last week, we weren’t playing together so if we can take what we did from this game, I think we’ll be able to come out with the win.”

Patterson agreed while noting that she was happy to see her entire team contribute on Monday night.

“We had our little ones like Kanon and Meggan stepping up and shooting 3s,” the MV coach said. “They were taking it to the basket and getting paint touches.

“I’m looking for a good game,” she of Friday’s matchup. “I just want these girls to continue to play like the way they played here and carry that momentum over.”

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