Winslow teams, Lady Scouts look for semifinal wins

The Window Rock Lady Scouts, Winslow Bulldogs and Winslow Lady Bulldogs are the only 3A North teams left in the state tournament and all three play Friday in the semifinals.

The No. 2 Lady Scouts (15-2), after placing second at the region tournament, collected themselves and are ready to play, said head coach Charles Chong.

"We had a couple days of practice and we didn't compete. We were going through emotions," he said. "We just expected to win by showing up (at the regional tournament).

"The next couple if days our focus was to compete and I think it really helped out and they really came out strong against Holbrook. They did an excellent job on defense."

Window Rock defeated Holbrook, 57-27.

In game two on Feb. 20 they hosted No. 7 Alchesay and won, 67-61.

"The girls came out a little sluggish," Chong said. "We let Alchesay jump up right on us in the start and at halftime we had a five-point deficit. I told them our team has come back from deficits a lot bigger than five. It's all about heart. You're going to have to battle your way through is game."

In the fourth quarter the Lady Scouts started playing the kind of defense he wanted during the whole game, he said.

Window Rock faces No. 6 Snowflake on Friday at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Ariz., at 2:30 p.m.

"I think if Window Rock plays their game then I know we'll have a really good chance of winning," Chong said. "Our main problem is ourselves, only Window Rock can beat Window Rock."

Winslow

The No. 4 Winslow boys (15-3) hosted No. 13 Santa Cruz on Feb. 15 and won, 72-40.

Winslow head coach Ricky Greer said he couldn't have asked for a better game from his team.

In their next game against No. 12 Window Rock, a 62-45 win, Greer said, "It was our defense that really keyed it. We had six early points and then held them to two points the rest of the first quarter. Then we had a 25-2 run, stretched a lead and that allowed us to never look back."

On Friday, at 7:45 p.m., the Bulldogs will face No. 1 Estrella Foothills. Greer said his team is more than ready for the big game.

"We know we got or work cut out for us," he said. "We got to play really, really tough defense, force them to work on their offense.

"I feel like we've grown so much, the guys are prepared, they believe they can pull this off," he said. "We're not going to be intimidated, we're going to give them everything we have."

Meanwhile, the No. 4 Lady Bulldogs (14-4) defeated No. 13 Round Valley, 72-56, on Feb. 16 in the first round.

Winslow head coach Don Petranovich said defense has been the name of their game all season long and that hasn't changed.

In the second round against No. 5 Monument Valley, the defending state champions, Winslow won, 53-46.

"MV, it was just a great game," Petranovich said. "We started off 9 and zip, they caught us and went ahead of us. It was basically a one-point game from then on in.

"The last five minutes, about four minutes to go, we kind of caught fire and got ahead by six," he said. "We kind of went into a spread offense and got fouls, and went to the free-throw line and made all of them."

On Friday, Winslow plays No. 1 Safford at 6 p.m. at Jobing.com Arena.

"We don't look at them that they're No. 1, we look at them like they're a ball club," Petranovich said. "They got a good, solid ball club. They're big, they have a girl who's 6-1 and one who's 5-11.

"They're going to be taller than we are," he said, "but we faced Round Valley and they had some tall ones. We have to block out, execute offense and if we can do that we expect to win. But we know we have our hands full with them, they're 27-1."

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