Playing as one of just four teams at the Chinle Tournament after Christmas, the Holbrook Lady Roadrunners posted two wins against one loss to finish third. Facing Monument Valley in an extra game for both teams last Wednesday, Holbrook struggled and played from behind for most of the game before basically stealing the game at the end with a 47-45 final outcome. Holbrook trailed by five at the end of a sluggish first quarter and still trailed by four at the half. Heading into the fourth that margin was six points, but in the final minutes of the game Holbrook closed the gap, then pushed out in front for the first time with less than a minute left in the game. “We agreed with Monument Valley to play this game, just to give us both some extra court time to work on things over the break. We certainly didn’t play well on offense through the first three periods, with way too many turnovers, and shot very poorly from both the three-point line and the field. Defensively, we were just mediocre, but this is why we chose to play in this tournament, so that we can hopefully work out all the kinks before getting into those critical power point games in January,” said Coach Greg Perkins. Aaren LaRose and Jessica Paz led Holbrook’s offense with 9 each. Kellin Bakurza and Shantina Kinlicheenie each added 5; Kaynasa Curley and Heather Dudley, 4 each; Tamisha Yazzie, 3; Kenalda Quintero, Eriene Haskie, Col’Bi Nez, and Samantha Smith, 2 each; and Starla Smith, 1. In the first of two scheduled bracket games at the tournament, Holbrook had to turn around after just over an hour’s rest and face Tuba City’s Lady Warriors, who simply crushed the Lady Birds 62-35. Holbrook played sloppy, and looked tired trying to keep up with the same Tuba City team the Lady Birds took to overtime just a week earlier at the Winslow tournament. This time around the Lady Warriors dominated from the start, outscoring Holbrook 16-1 in the first quarter. Starla Smith and Quintero combined for 11 of Holbrook’s 14 second quarter points, but the Lady Birds trailed 41-15 at the half. In the second half Dudley scored all of her team high 11 points as Holbrook made an attempt to get an inside game working. Starla Smith finished with 7; Quintero and Paz, 5 each; Brittany Baldwin, 3; and Kinlicheenie and Shandie Demuth, 2 each. “Even with us playing basically back-to-back games, this was still a disappointing loss,” said Coach Perkins. “I thought we would play a little tougher against what is a very good team. We just didn’t have the legs to compete against them. When we get physically tired, which didn’t take long in this game, we start to make mental mistakes and don’t shoot well at all. Fortunately, this tournament gave us a chance to get some work done against some good teams. I have to give Tuba City credit, though. They came out, played hard and really took it to us.” Facing the host team Chinle on Thursday for third and fourth place, Holbrook overcame too many first half turnovers to lead by eight at the break. Chinle cut into that lead in the third period, but a strong effort from Nez in the fourth helped Holbrook hold on for a 48-40 win. “Both Col’Bi and Kaynasa played well for most of this game. Kellin also dropped in a couple of three-point shots to help our percentage from behind the arc,” said the coach. Nez paced the team with 14 points. Bakurza added 8; Curley, 7; Dudley, 6; Yazzie, Baldwin and Kinlicheenie, 3 each; and Paz and Demuth, 2 each. Holbrook headed into January with an overall mark of 12-5. The Lady Birds were still 4-0 in power point contests heading into this week’s action, which will determine state tournament placing. After two cancellations due to weather, the Lady Birds will have a packed schedule. With 13 games now scheduled in January, they will have to get things figured out on the fly if they want to continue to improve on their overall state placing. “With our games packed into three games a week, we won’t have a ton of practice time to figure things out. I am hoping we can get back to where we were playing at the end of last season early in this stretch of games, then build on that momentum throughout the month,” said Coach Perkins. “Our remaining schedule is extremely tough with everyone on our schedule having a winning power point record heading into this month. I know this team has the ability to do some incredible things, but we need to get on the right path quickly. Some of our veteran players really need to step up for this stretch run.” After playing their make-up game at St. Johns on Wednesday, then hosting Blue Ridge on Thursday, Holbrook will host Winslow in what is a huge game on Saturday, Jan. 7. The Lady Birds will host Joseph City on Tuesday, Jan. 10.