If junior guard Cooper Roderick’s two first quarter 3-pointers and sophomore guard Kingston Martinez’s buzzer-beating trey from the corner were haymakers against Shiprock, the Chieftains’ subsequent three-quarter comeback Tuesday night could be considered an accumulation of body shots.
The more Bayfield went for the knockout, Shiprock’s steady gut check started paying dividends. Senior Donte Nelson began the third quarter by taking a feed into the paint and twisting to the hoop for a bucket, and freshman Joaquin Nez’s conventional 3-point play helped the visitors regain their lead en route to a 65-56 win inside an anxious BHS Gymnasium.
Shiprock improved to 7-4, while Bayfield fell to 1-7.
“Farmington really put a whopping on us. It was good to see the guys climb back from that,” Shiprock coach Larenson Henderson said. “We’re an 80-point team, I think … but the guys did well. They kind of felt heavy – I don’t know if it was the elevation here – and said they felt flat-footed, but I told them that’s just a part of travel and they’ve got to get used to it.”
Chieftain senior Nevaughn Begay racked up a game-high 21 points.
Bayfield managed to stay within double digits, until Shiprock freshman reserve Ashton Keith sank a surprise 3 widening the gap to 59-48.
Bayfield senior Cody Ross took a pass from junior Lincoln Williams and responded with a clutch trey, only to see Nez then exploit porous transition defense and take a baseball-style inbounds pass in for an unchallenged layup.
Shiprock went 7 of 7 from the foul line during the fourth quarter and 10 of 14 overall from the charity stripe.
Martinez finished with three 3s and a team-leading 16 points for Bayfield. Slowed by three fourth-quarter fouls, Roderick still totaled 15 points for the Wolverines but scored only two after intermission.
“Cooper had a rough game. Second half … they kind of shut him down a little,” Bayfield coach Damon White Thunder said. “We tried to go to some other stuff, tried to get him open and by that time he was so tired …. We kind of relied on Kingston, who had a pretty good game offensively.”
Ross totaled eight points. Williams had seven points, eight assists and seven steals. Sophomore post Vin McCullough (who grabbed a team-high nine rebounds) was held to six points, but grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Wolverines. Shiprock outscored Bayfield’s bench 18-4.
“Throughout the (holiday) break we watched film and everything, prepared well, and one of our goals was to come out and start strong – I felt we did a pretty decent job of that,” said White Thunder, saluting the Wolverines’ first quarter dominance. “But the big kid (Nelson) that they have went for seven? offensive rebounds in the second half. And that’s been a focus with us; we just kind of struggled with that. But we’re working on it.”
The Chieftains will play at the Hope Christian Invitational Jan. 18-20 in Albuquerque.
The Wolverines will open 4A/3A Intermountain League play Friday at Montezuma-Cortez.
