4A girls: Kirtland Central dominates Gallup for 22nd title

For the 22nd time, purple reign indeed.

No girls basketball program in this state — in fact, few programs in any sport in New Mexico — is as regularly decorated as the Kirtland Central Broncos. On Friday night, Kirtland rolled to its 22nd championship, as the No. 1 seed throttled No. 2 Gallup 52-33 in the Class 4A final in front of approximately 12,000 fans inside the Pit.

“This is just a special group,” Broncos coach Devon Manning said. “They executed our game plan tonight … We felt pretty confident, as long as we were getting in defensive transition, we just liked our chances. These are some awesome girls. I love them to death.”

Kirtland Central stood atop the 4A division right from the start, going back to November.

“We wanted it really bad today,” said senior post Krista Tsingine-Yazzie, a partial reference to losing to Gallup on this same stage in this same round 12 months earlier.

The Broncos (29-3) repeatedly challenged themselves to prepare for this week, and in particular this very night. Kirtland stepped outside the 4A division for a number of high-profile matchups against Class 5A powers. To wit: Kirtland Central met three of the four 5A state semifinalists, including the two remaining teams in this year’s bracket, Hobbs and Rio Rancho.

“We’ve played the best of the best the state has to offer,” Manning said. “Last year, they were a little young. This year, they grew up, and they understand it’s a long game. And man, they just worked so hard for this moment.”

The Eagles and Rams were the only teams to solve Kirtland Central — until the District 1-4A championship game two weeks ago, where Gallup beat the Broncos 49-41. This, after the Bengals lost two district games to Kirtland Central by a combined 67 points.

Whatever ailed the Broncos that night, including what Manning described as a subpar offensive showing, was addressed and corrected quite impressively on Friday night.

“We gave up too many easy baskets (that night) in transition. We wanted to make them a half-court team out of our press,” Manning said, “so we’re trying to pressure them, don’t give up anything deep, and go from there.”

The lower bowl inside the Pit was almost completely full for this fourth meeting of the powers.

Gallup (27-5) started well, and there were four lead changes in a first quarter that ended with the Bengals nursing a 9-8 lead.

But the Bengals were eventually undone by turnovers, by Kirtland Central’s stars and by several Bronco runs.

Consider the first of those several game-turning runs, a 12-0 burst by Kirtland Central that consumed almost all of the final 4½ minutes of the first half after Gallup claimed a 14-10 lead on Payton Johnson’s 3-pointer.

Senior guard Haylee Nocki and sensational sophomore guard Allyson Tsosie both hit threes within 30 seconds of each other; Tsosie’s was banked home. The 12-0 run put Kirtland Central in front 22-14.

Mykeia Vicenti’s 3 for the Bengals cut the margin to five, but junior Elaina Clani hit a shot off the glass with seven-tenths of a second to go for Kirtland Central, and a 24-17 halftime lead.

“That kind of started it,” Manning said.

Gallup might have withstood that push by the Broncos, but the next one proved to be a crusher.

Kirtland Central opened the second half with the first seven points. Tsosie hit a layup off a turnover, Clani drained a shot off the glass and junior Zoey Benally hit a corner 3 from in front of her bench. At that moment, it was 31-17 for Kirtland Central as their fans roared.

The lead never got below nine points from that point on, and Kirtland Central put it away by scoring the first seven of the fourth quarter for a 40-22 bulge. Tsosie started that little 7-0 run with a three-point play, and Clani scored back-to-back buckets.

At that point, Gallup had as many turnovers (22) as points.

“You could see Gallup slow down a little bit when we made our runs,” Manning said. “Their passes got a little slower, their reads were a little slower, and we got some big steals.”

Big picture, Tsosie said the girls who were on the floor a year ago didn’t waste much time thinking about how to make amends.

“That night, we were still processing it, on the drive home,” she said. “Once we got back home, when we woke up, we knew we had to work harder and focus on getting the next one.”

Clani, Nocki, Tsosie and Benally, who all played prominent roles on last year’s team that came up just short in the championship game, combined to score 49 of Kirtland’s 52 points.

Tsosie led the way with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six steals. Clani, who repeatedly cut to the basket for finishes, added 15 points. Benally scored nine, Nocki eight. Tsingine-Yazzie grabbed nine rebounds and had the other three points.

Vicenti led the Bengals with 11 points. Kayden Tsosie added nine points and nine rebounds.

Kirtland Central had lost to Gallup in the finals the last two times they met, last March and also in 2023.

“It’s always good to be the first to do something,” Manning said with a rare smile. “Good to be the first Kirtland team to beat Gallup (in the championship game).”

Manning also made a couple of self-deprecating remarks about how his team puts up with his demands, but said a night like Friday was worth everything.

“It’s the standard we have to live up to,” he said. “It’s not what I want, it’s what the program demands.”