Gallup girls fall again
Impressive showing on Day 2 not enough to life Bengals over Chaminade-Julienne

Gallup Lady Bengal Courtney Cowboy (24) uses her hands to try and keep Chaminade-Julienne Lady Eagle Shene Fleming (45) on Saturday during the T-Mobile National High School Basketball Invitational at the University of New Mexico's Pit in Albuquerque. The Lady Bengals lost 60-48 to the Lady Eagles from Dayton, Ohio during the girls consolation game. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

Gallup Lady Bengal Erica Sowers (3) drives the ball up to the center of the lane Saturday while Chaminade-Julienne Lady Eaglr Tyesha Jones (21) moves to block her path during the T-Mobile National High School Basketball Invitational at the University of New Mexico's Pit in Albuquerque. The Lady Bengals lost 60-48 to the Dayton, Ohio Lady Eagles in the girls consolation game. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

ALBUQUERQUE — The Gallup Lady Bengals put together a pair of impressive runs but in the end could not overcome Chaminade-Julienne of Dayton, Ohio Saturday morning at University Arena.

The Lady Eagles held off the Lady Bengals, who were inspired by a huge Gallup following for the second day, 60-48 during the consolation game of the 2nd Annual T-Mobile Invitational.

Despite Gallup’s second loss in two days at the invitational, veteran Gallup head coach John Lomasney said he was pleased with his team’s performance playing against some of nation’s top girls teams that were invited.

“I have a good, warm feeling,” Lomasney said. “We got on a roll. We made a lot of 3’s. But we couldn’t quite finish it out.”

Gallup (8-3) will next face third ranked Grand Junction, Colorado Thursday in the opening round of the Kirtland Central Invitational.

In spite of leading the entire game with huge leads, Chaminade-Julienne head coach Marc Greenberg said that his team never had control of the game.

“We were never in control of the game,” Greenberg said. “Gallup’s runs were caused by their fans. They’ll start knocking some 3’s. But each time we made plays to get us into the game. But the two teams were two totally different teams with contrasting styles. We start three six-footers and they shoot the 3’s.”

In contrast to Friday’s first round 55-33 loss to Hampton, Va., in which the Lady Bengals were held scoreless in the second quarter, the New Mexico team had chances of pulling the game out against Chaminade-Julienne (9-1).

Twice the Lady Bengals stared at serious deficits of 16 points late in the first half and another of 19 points late in the third quarter. Each time Gallup brought its faithful fans back into the contest with determined runs that were fueled by three-point shooting.

After knocking 7 of 25 treys in the first game against Hampton, Gallup struggled in the first half with its long distance shooting against Chaminade-Julienne.

The Lady Bengals hit on just 2 of 10 (from Telisha Joe and Nicole Tsosie) from three-point land in the first half.
Gallup trailed the entire game as Chaminade-Julienne led the entire game which had no ties as well.

Talented Chaminade-Julienne 6-foot-1 sophomore forward Shamarie Walker got the Lady Eagles off to a quick start as she personally accounted for 12 of her team’s 15 points in the opening period.

After being held scoreless for the first 18 minutes of the Hampton game due to being in foul trouble, Joe took control of her game and tallied six of Gallup’s first nine points.

The taller Lady Eagles, who dominated the Lady Bengals on the boards (43 to 22), penetrated inside time and time again to score easy shots.

India Warfield went inside, Walker, who topped all scorers with 21 points along with an impressive 21 rebounds, six assists and one steal, scored on a putback, six foot junior guard-forward Shene Fleming added another on a second effort and followed that up with an easy score on a inbounds play and Chaminade-Julienne’s lead mushroomed to 10 points on a 10-3 spurt.

Just before intermission, the Lady Bengals were looking at a serious 16-point deficit thanks to three more inside scores by Fleming, senior guard Tiera Stephan and Warfield.

The stats told it all.

The Lady Eagles had scored 28 of their 31 first half points inside the paint. 12 of the points came off Gallup turnovers, nine were on second chances and six were off the fastbreak. Gallup had no points inside in the first half, just four off turnovers, no points on second efforts, and no points on fastbreaks.

But the Bengals gradually worked itself back into the game in the second half.

Gallup senior guard Erica Sowers went inside with 6:37 left in the third quarter for Gallup’s first points inside the paint. Then as the large Gallup following got noisier, Sage Natonabah, who finished with 11 points, five rebounds and one block, buried successive treys. Joe, who led the team with 20 points on 8 of 16 shooting from the field along with four boards, three assists and one steal, capped off a determined 12-4 Gallup run with a putback that pulled the Lady Bengals within striking distance, 35-29 with 4:21 left in the third quarter.

But Chaminade-Julienne responded with a 12-0 run of its own that quickly quieted the Gallup fans.

The Lady Eagles nursed their dwindling six-point lead back up to an 19-point advantage during a three-minute spurt.

Again it was the inside game that hurt Gallup as Chaminade-Julienne scored five buckets inside the paint along with a pair of free throws as the Lady Eagles led by 19, 48-29.

Gallup halted the run on a three-pointer by Largo, who finished the game with three treys after hitting two against Hampton, with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter.

Back-to-back treys by Largo followed by a trey by Joe with 2:21 left in the game drew Gallup to eight points down, 56-48.

The Lady Bengals had an opportunity to cut that lead even more but Joe, who is normally a solid free throw shooter, missed on both of her chances at the line.

Gallup did not help matters much as the Lady Bengals missed on a pair of easy shots inside in the early going which frustrated Lomasney.

“What I can not do is make the layups for them,”

Lomasney said. “We missed the backbreakers. Turnovers changed the game. Our posts had a cold first half and then in the second half Janelle (Largo) hits 3’s. She came in and started to light it up for us. We had eight minutes that hurt us yesterday (against Hampton). Today we just could not quite get it.”

Gallup shot 31 percent from the field (16 of 51) but fared better from three-point range (9 of 22) for 41 percent. Largo was 3 of 4, Natonabah 3 of 7, Joe 2 of 3 and Tsosie 1 of 2 from 3-point range. Chaminade-Julienne was 0 for 3 from long range but did not need it when as it controlled inside the paint for 44 of its points to just six for Gallup.

Chaminade-Julienne shot an even 50 percent, 24 of 48, from the field.

Despite losing both invitational games, Lomasney said that he was happy that his team was invited to the national high school invitational.

“It was a great tourney,” he said. “This was fun. Our fans turned it on for us. That was one reason we got invited. It was a great community effort. I was proud of how we represented the state. These people (the players) make it fun. It was 33 years of hard work and I got a tear in my eye.”

Joe said she was also excited to be playing top notch competition.

“We learned a lot as a team,” said Joe who played AAU ball this summer in North Carolina, Oregon and Indiana.

“We learned that we can compete at this level. We came together as a team.”

“Telisha is a highly-sought-after point guard,” Lomasey added. “We showed we can play with bigger athletes. Our kids can compete. We’ll be ready for everybody. We got to be ready to play every night. Teams want to beat Gallup. We can’t have a letdown. People want to beat us so bad. They’re pumped up for us and the pressure is on.”

No. 2 ranked Long Beach Poly of California crushed Hampton of Virginia 68-37 in the girls championship finals.

In the boys bracket, Centennial nipped La Cueva in a thriller, 64-63, in the consolation contest. No. 5 ranked St. Anthony of New Jersey downed Lone Peak of Highland, Utah 54-43 in the boys tourney finals.