The Lady Roadrunners of Holbrook dropped last Thursday night’s contest to visiting Ganado by a final of 65-57. Both teams scored well in the opening eight minutes, with the Lady Hornets holding an 18-16 edge. Dakota Dick netted 7 to lead the home team. In the second, Quanyyah Lester’s 11 points weren’t enough to offset a 20-point outburst by Ganado, which built a 38-31 halftime lead. Alisha Kee came off the bench in the third period to give Holbrook a spark with eight points, including a pair of treys, but the Birds still trailed by nine points heading to the fourth. In the final eight minutes the Roadrunners managed to cut the lead to two points on two different occasions, but they were never quite able to climb on top and eventually took the eight-point home court loss. “Give Ganado credit, they shot the ball extremely well tonight. Our half-court defense was not up to the standards we expect and they certainly took advantage of the several open shots we left them with,” said Holbrook Coach Greg Perkins. “We need to step up our overall energy and our effort on the defensive end of the floor if we expect to make the state tournament this year. “Unfortunately, we lost Elena Smith, most likely for the season, with an injury. I feel so bad for her, because she was just starting to elevate her game for us. Also we may have lost Aiyana Gary for a while with a wrist injury. Hopefully, she won’t have to miss too much time; like Elena, she is beginning to raise her game.” Lester led Holbrook with 18 points. Dakota Dick added 11; Kee, 8; Ariyana Pratt, 6; Smith, 4; Dishie Kinlicheenie, 3; Laurie Brown, Twyla Clark and Gary, 2 each; and Shoshawna Jack, 1. As a team the Roadrunners made five three-point field goals and hit on eight of 12 free throw attempts. Ganado was led by Jaelynn Curley with 18 points. Tierra James added 12; Chasity Gorman, 11; and Janaya McIntosh, 10. The Hornets also made five three-point field goals and hit four of 10 free throws. With the loss the Roadrunners fell to 7-4 on the season. After hosting a very good Prescott team on Monday afternoon, they will be off until Monday, Dec. 28, when they begin play in the Valley Christian Tournament in Chandler. Holbrook will face Snowflake, Poston Butte, Tempe and Maricopa in pool play, then will have one bracket game on Wednesday, Dec. 30. The ladies will return to regular season action on Saturday, Jan. 9, with a trip to Page to face the defending champion Lady Sand Devils.