No. 1 Kirtland Central asserts itself, goes on the road and dominates No. 2 Gallup

GALLUP – The first four minutes of the first half. The last four minutes of the first half. The gap — and it was a big one — between Kirtland Central and Gallup could be easily spotted right there.

Class 4A’s top-ranked Broncos outscored the second-ranked Bengals 15-2 to start the game, and added a 12-1 run to close the first half, as Kirtland Central rolled into town and blitzed Gallup 63-38 on Thursday night in a matchup of girls basketball powers.

The first of what could be as many as five meetings between the District 1-4A rivals never delivered on the sparks, and in fact a good number of Gallup fans bolted for the exit after the third quarter, a quarter than ended with Kirtland’s Haylee Nocki knocking down a running 25-footer off the glass.

It was, more or less, that kind of night for the Broncos.

“Everyone who contributed, from the starters to the bench to the coaches … I thought we had a really good prep for this game,” Broncos coach Devon Manning said.

Kirtland Central (16-2, 2-0 in 1-4A) turned Gallup (15-3, 1-1) over six times in the first four minutes alone as the Broncos led 15-2 and compelled Bengals coach Todd McBroom into burning two of his timeouts. At one point, Gallup had used more timeouts than it had scored baskets (1).

Allyson Tsosie buried a 3-pointer for Kirtland Central just 18 seconds into the game, a harbinger of what was to come. Back-to-back Gallup turnovers led to Bronco buckets by Elaina Clani and Nocki for a 9-0 run just 77 seconds into the game.

“That’s what we want to do, turn them over and start the game that way, and it just took off with that,” said Tsosie, who finished with 15 points.

Clani, Tsosie and Nocki scored again to finish the 15-2 run, silencing the Gallup portion of the crowd in a jam-packed gym.

“I just think our pressure got ‘em,” Manning said. “Todd is gonna make great adjustments when we play them next time (in Kirtland on Feb. 5), so we’ll have to prepare completely different when we play them in a couple of weeks.”

Trailing 17-4, the Bengals did get things together and briefly climbed back into the game. After a 3, and a layup, both by junior forward Kayden Tsosie, Gallup trailed just by five at 21-16 with 4:19 to go before halftime. The hopes for a close game suddenly were blossoming.

Until they weren’t. And that didn’t take long.

Junior Zoey Benally canned a 3 for the Broncos, followed by a triple from Krista Tsingine-Yazzie. Then, consecutive baskets by Benally — who had one of her best games of the season — quickly stretched the lead back to double digits at 31-16, and Kirtland led 33-17 at halftime.

The second half offered nothing in the way of a rally by defending state champion Gallup, which was completely undone by those two first-half runs, plus an astonishing 31 turnovers as the Broncos’ tenacious defense overwhelmed the Bengals.

“That was our goal in the first place,” said Benally, who scored 13 points, all in the first half, including 11 in the second quarter. “I think we did a great job tonight.”

Asked about Benally’s contributions, a knowing smile crossed Manning’s face.

“You know,” he said, “Zoey … it’s a Catch-22 with her. She’ll have her great moments, she’ll look like one of the best guards, then she gets a little careless with the ball at times. But I’ll take her on my team anytime of the year.”

Nocki had a team-best 16 points for Kirtland Central. Marie Nez scored 11 to pace Gallup.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.