Tuba girls use inside-outside game to beat Ganado

BURNSIDE, Ariz. – The inside game opened up some opportunities for the Tuba City perimeter players on Saturday night.

The Lady Warriors (12-6 overall, 3-1 in 3A North play) nailed eight treys en route to a 76-66 win over Ganado (12-6, 2-3) at the Hornet Pavilion in Burnside, Arizona.

“One of the things I preach to the girls every single time is that the best plays in basketball is running your set plays,” first-year Tuba City coach Michael Balcerek said. “We don’t go out there and do things that we’re not supposed to. We’re out there looking for our shots and looking at things that we need to do.”

With that in mind, the Warriors were efficient at making sure the ball touched the paint as that created some one-on-one opportunities by their post players.

That inside game aided the performance turned in by Tuba City guard Erianna Begay as the senior finished with a career-high 30 points on 12-of-21 shooting. From the 3-point line, Begay had a better clip as she made 6-of-8 shots from long range.

“I have to give credit to my teammates for setting me up for those 3-pointers,” Begay said. “They really believe in me, and I appreciate that they believe in me because it boosts my confidence.”

Begay hit her first trey early on as Tuba City opened up an 8-3 cushion with 6:42 left in the opening quarter.

The Warriors pushed that margin to 25-15 heading into the second as sophomore guard Trece Tsinigine, senior post Natasha Acothley and Begay combined for 20 of those first-quarter points.

Acothley hit three close range shots while Tsinigine nailed two 3-pointers.

Ganado, meanwhile, was paced by junior Jasah McIntosh as she put in seven points.

In the second, McIntosh was held scoreless but senior guard Faith James picked up the slack with eight points. Her basket at the 3:02 mark cut Tuba’s lead down to 33-25.

The Warriors, however, capped the first half on an 8-2 run with Begay nailing her third trey of the night while junior Justice Nez added an old-fashion 3-point play for a 41-27 halftime cushion.

“We shared the ball a lot,” Begay said of her team’s effectiveness in the opening half. “We move their defense around by moving the ball and we got a lot of open shots.”

In the third quarter, though, the Hornets regrouped and got within 48-44 following a basket by junior forward Shawntaya Smith with 1:01 showing on the clock.

“We knew that Ganado was going to come out after the half and not give up on themselves,” Balcerek said. “They fought and they did what they were supposed to do. We took their punch, but we kept going.”

After seeing Tuba make a ton of shots from the outside, Ganado eventually abandoned its 2-3 zone in the second half as they came up with some needed stops to help dig themselves out of the early hole.

“Obviously, our girls stepped it up when we played them man defense,” first-year Ganado coach Galen Williams said. “One of our freshman, Mia Jesus, did a phenomenal job of staying with No. 15 (Erianna Begay).”

In that third quarter, Jesus kept Begay in check as she did not record a field goal. But in an 11-point frenzy, Begay nailed three treys to help Tuba pushed its lead to 63-46 with just over six minutes left.

“Being one of the captains and being one of the seniors, (Erianna) kept us composed,” Balcerek said. “She did what she was supposed to do and be the attacker that she’s supposed to be.”

In addition to Begay, Tuba City also had Tsinigine in double figures as she finished with 13 points.

For Ganado, James finished with 24 points and McIntosh added 23. As one would expect, the Ganado coach is looking for a third and fourth scorer on his team.

“We don’t have a true big,” Williams said. “What I noticed is that a lot of the teams that we’ve played have a lot of tall girls. We don’t have any, so we have work on our speed.

“But we’re trying to implement a post presence,” he added. “Our power forwards have to understand they have to work on the baseline as far as posting up and being aggressive.”

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