Maricopa girls’ miraculous season ends

The Maricopa girls basketball team’s remarkable season came to an abrupt end Saturday evening as the Rams lost 64-30 to visiting Chinle High School in the second round of the 3A state playoffs.

Junior Brittany Parks scored 10 points, and Erin Litchfield added seven points for the second-seeded Rams, who ended the season with a record of 21-3 after suffering their first loss since December.

The Rams played from behind for much of the night and could never seem to get anything going on offense for an extended stretch. Maricopa was also hampered by several injuries during the game.

“We were dropping like flies out there,” coach Jenn Miller said. Most notably for the Rams, both Parks and freshman Paige Provost suffered key injuries early in the second quarter. Although Parks was able to return to play, she favored her knee the rest of the game. Provost, on the other hand, was forced to sit out the rest of the game.

Chinle, the No. 7 seed, took control from the start and jumped out to an early five-point lead. The Rams fought back with Litchfield scoring the first points of the night for the Rams, followed shortly by a drive to the basket by Amanda Hamm, who was also fouled on the play. She missed the ensuing free throw, and the Wildcats went on another mini-spurt, rattling off four more unanswered points to stretch their lead back to five.

After a couple of minutes of scoreless ball, Parks drained a 3-point shot, followed by a steal and an uncontested layup to tie the score. But Chinle again quickly rattled off five unanswered points. Junior Dee Streety ended the run by the Wildcats with a basket with 18.8 seconds remaining in the first quarter, which ended with Chinle leading 14-11.

The beginning of the second quarter showed much more promise for the Rams, as Parks hit two free throws. The Wildcats scored on their next possession, but the Rams answered with scores by Streety and junior Jalissa Bell to take their first lead with 5:50 remaining in the half. The two teams exchanged the lead once more, with Streety scoring the last of her six points for the night. Unfortunately for the Rams, it would also be the last points of the quarter, as the Wildcats went on a 12 point run to end the half with a score of 19-30.

The second half saw much the same as the end of the first, with Chinle going on several spurts, and little or no offense mounted by the Rams. Further hampering the Rams was a lack of output from the free-throw line, as they shot just 6 of 19 from the stripe. The Wildcats slowly stretched their lead over the Rams, wrapping up the third quarter with a 49-24 advantage and finally finishing off Maricopa in the fourth quarter.

“It’s not the ending we wanted,” Miller said, “but who gets to have a season like we did? I wouldn’t trade this loss for the entire season. I’m so proud of this team, all of them!”

The Rams now begin the task of building toward next season next year. “One of the really exciting things is that we have a couple of freshmen out there that are going to be able to learn from this experience,” Miller said. “We talked a lot about learning from our seniors and taking the lessons they taught us – about hustling and determination and staying positive – and building on that.

“We’re going to take some time off now, but we’re going to play some summer ball this year. I’m also going to have them start hitting the weight room right after it’s finished to start working on our agility and endurance.”

Chinle advanced to the semifinals and a date with Kayenta Monument Valley, which edged Payson 47-46 on Saturday.

Photo by David Vargas