PREP BASKETBALL
4A girls: Top four seeds cruise into semis
Gallup, Albuquerque Academy, Kirtland Central and Hope Christian roll
Both of last season’s finalists are still alive in Class 4A .
Defending state champion Gallup advanced to the semifinals with a 48-38 victory over Silver to close out the Class 4A quarterfinals on Tuesday at the Pit. The second-seeded Bengals will face No. 3 Albuquerque Academy, which dispatched No. 11 Shiprock 63-44, at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
In the other half of the bracket, 2025 runner-up Kirtland Central rolled past No. 9 Lovington 68-25. The top-seeded Broncos will meet No. 4 Hope Christian, a 48-35 winner over No. 5 Valencia in the opening game of the day. Kirtland Central vs. Hope will take place at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
No. 2 GALLUP 48, No. 7 SILVER 38: After beating the Colts by 35 and 25 points in two regular-season meetings, the Bengals (26-4) had to take a different approach to earn victory in the trilogy.
It started with defense, and more specifically, the efforts of Mykeia Vicenti, who had 12 of her team’s 22 steals as the Bengals forced Silver (22-7) into 32 turnovers. That helped alleviate both a slow start for Gallup and a furious finish by the Colts in what turned out to be a closer-than-expected matchup.
“I thought we played hard. Defensively, we played real well,” said Gallup coach Todd McBroom. “Forced 32 turnovers on them — and so that's always a positive.”
Silver jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, with Nyssa Tinajero providing all of the offense for the Colts. The Bengals put on the clamps from there, holding Silver scoreless for approximately eight minutes while they went on a 12-0 run.
The Colts clawed back to within 45-38 with less than two minutes remaining before Gallup sealed the victory at the foul line. Tinajero, who finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds, was a catalyst behind the Colts’ rally with eight points in the final stanza.
No. 3 ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY 63, No. 11 SHIPROCK 44: The Chargers (25-5) survived an early injury scare and relied on their frontcourt dominance to cruise past the Chieftains (16-14).
Academy’s Lily Skarsgard had to be carried off the court after suffering an ankle sprain early in the second quarter, but that didn’t stop the Chargers from extending a three-point first-quarter lead to nine at halftime. While Skarsgard returned briefly in the third quarter, her movement was still quite limited.
Even with their point guard sidelined, the Chargers asserted themselves inside thanks to the combined efforts of Harper Dunn (18 points), Addie Spratley (17) and Kiara Brown (12).
“When Lily went down with her injury, it took a little steam out of our team,” said Academy coach Joshua Skarsgard. “But like all year, we've been resilient, so I told them I was proud of their resilience. To see your captain get hurt and still keep playing and advance that lead was gutsy.”
Joshua Skarsgard didn’t have a clear prognosis for his daughter.
“I don't know the grade of the sprain, but she was able to play. I think you guys saw she wasn't laterally quick,” he said. “She's going to get ice, e-stim (electrical stimulation), Kinesio Tape… We're going to dump a lot into her for the next 48 hours, so we'll see if she can go. But she was definitely not 100% in that second half.”
No. 1 KIRTLAND CENTRAL 68, No. 9 LOVINGTON 25: As the first quarter drew to a close, the looks of frustration and fatigue were already evident on the faces of the Wildcats. That’s par for the course against the Broncos (27-3), who earned their 19th victory by 30 points or more against Lovington (20-9).
“I don’t think it’s fun (to play us), no,” said Kirtland’s Haylee Nocki. “We put a lot of pressure on you.”
That might be an understatement. That Broncos scored 31 points off 29 Lovington turnovers, harassing the Wildcats with relentless pressure all over the court. Kirtland led by 15 points after one quarter, 29 after two and 38 after three.
Both Nocki and Allyson Tsosie led Kirtland with 24 points apiece, and the two standouts combined for eight of their team’s nine 3-pointers.
No. 4 HOPE CHRISTIAN 48, No. 5 VALENCIA 35: Abrianna Bishop scored 10 of her game-high 18 points in the third quarter as the Huskies (25-6) pulled away from the Jaguars (22-7).
Hope used a 10-0 run to open the second half to go up 32-15. Meanwhile, Valencia didn’t score until Francesca Otero hit a 3 at the 1:57 mark of the third quarter.
“We just wanted to spend as long as we can together, so we just knew that we had to step it up and get this win,” Bishop said.
Valencia kept it close with hot shooting from beyond the arc in the first half, but the Jaguars struggled with Hope’s size and length when they were unable to get open shots from the perimeter. When all was said and done, Valencia shot better from the 3-point line (40%) than it did from inside the arc (27%). The Huskies also dominated inside offensively, outscoring Valencia 32-8 in the paint.
Adalynn Day added 10 points and seven assists for Hope. Savannah Saavedra led the way for the Jaguars with 12 points, including four of her team’s eight 3-pointers.
