Burnside, Arizona. – The inside game created some opportunities for Tuba City’s perimeter players Saturday night.
The Lady Warriors (12-6 overall, 3-1 in 3A North play) took eight points en route to a 76-66 victory over Ganado (12-6, 2-3) at Hornet Pavilion in Burnside, Arizona. I decided on a tray of books.
“One of the things I preach to my girls every time is that the best play in basketball is executing set plays,” Tuba City first-year coach Michael Balcelek said. “We’re not going to go out and do things we’re not supposed to do. We’re going to go out looking for shots and look at what we need to do.”
With that in mind, the Warriors were efficient in creating one-on-one opportunities with post players and ensuring the ball hit the paint.
That inside game helped Tuba City guard Eliana Begay perform, as the senior scored a career-high 30 points on 12-of-21 shooting. From the 3-point line, Begay showed a better clip, making 6 of 8 from long range.
“I have to give credit to my teammates for preparing me to hit that 3-point shot,” Begay said. “They really believe in me. I’m grateful that they believe in me because it gives me confidence.”
Begay hit the first trey early as Tuba City increased its lead to 8-3 with 6:42 left in the first quarter.
The Warriors pushed the lead to 25-15 heading into the second set, with sophomore guard Torris Tsinigine, senior post Natasha Akosly and Begay combining for 20 of the first quarter points.
Akosuri made three shots from close range and Tsinigine made two 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, Ganado was paced by junior Jaysa McIntosh with seven points.
McIntosh was held scoreless in the second, but senior guard Faith James caught up with eight points. Her basket at 3:02 cut Tuba’s lead to 33-25.
But the Warriors ended the first half on an 8-2 run with Begay’s third trey of the night, and junior Justice Nez added an old-fashioned 3-point play to take the lead at halftime, 41-27.
“We shared the ball well,” Begay said of his team’s effectiveness in the first half. “We moved the ball around, moving the opponent’s defense around and getting a lot of open shots.”
However, the Hornets recovered in the third quarter and got within 48-44 on a basket from junior forward Shawntaya Smith with 1:01 remaining.
“We knew Ganado would come out after the first half and not give up on us,” Balcelek said. “They fought and did what they had to do. We took their punches, but we kept going.”
Seeing Tuba take a ton of shots from the outside, Ganado came up with the stops he needed to get out of the early hole, eventually abandoning the 2-3 zone in the second half.
“Obviously, when we let them play man defense, our girls stepped up even more,” Ganado first-year coach Galen Williams said. “One of our freshmen, Mia Jesus, did a phenomenal job of staying at No. 15 (Eliana Begay).”
In that third quarter, Jesus held Begay in check, as he did not record a field goal. But in an 11-point frenzy, Begay hit three treys and Tuba extended its lead to 63-46 with just over six minutes left.
“Being one of the captains and one of the seniors, (Eliana) kept us calm,” Balcelek said. “She did what she was supposed to do and became the attacker she was supposed to be.”
In addition to Begay, Tsiniguine also scored in double figures for Tuba City with 13 points.
For Ganado, James had 24 points and McIntosh had 23 points. As expected, Coach Ganado is looking for the team’s third and fourth scorers.
“We don’t have any true bigs,” Williams said. “What I noticed is that a lot of the teams we played have a lot of tall girls, we don’t have anything, so we have to work on our speed.
“But we are introducing post-presence,” he added. “Our power forwards need to understand that they have to work on their baseline in terms of post-ups and being aggressive.”
