Tuesday’s game in Holbrook between the Lady Roadrunners and the visiting Lady Wildcats of Joseph City was a tough struggle for both teams through the first eight minutes of action, which ended in an 11-11 tie. With Holbrook unable to trap, Joseph City guard Taylor Hill pushed the ball into the middle of the defense, allowing her teammates to put points on the board. When the dust settled after four quarters, though, the home team won the contest, 63-46. Aaren LaRose hit a three-point shot to open the game and Shandie Demuth scored twice in the paint, helping Holbrook keep pace. In the second quarter, three-point shots from LaRose and Starla Smith, along with four each from Shantina Kinlicheenie and Col’Bi Nez, helped the Lady Birds overcome a five point period from Joseph City’s post player, Searra Hansen. With Holbrook leading 31-25 at the break, the home team came out strong in the third period, thanks to two more three-point bombs from LaRose and some strong inside play by Kinlicheenie which helped the Lady Roadrunners increase the margin to 14 points heading to the final eight minutes. Early in the fourth the Lady Cats cut the lead to 10, but that’s as close as they would get. Heather Dudley stepped up her level of play in the final period, scoring eight in the paint, and Holbrook began to wear down the Lady Wildcats with their bench play, eventually winning the game 63-46. LaRose and Kinlicheenie led Holbrook with 14 points each. Dudley added 10, Nez, 6, Smith, 5, Kellin Bakurza, Kaynasa Curley and Demuth, 4 each, and Jessica Paz, 2. The Lady Birds finished with five three-point shots and made all four of their free throw attempts. Joseph City was led by Hansen with 10 points. Kristin Baldwin added 9, Brooke Baldwin, 8, Hill and Madison Fields, 6 each, Sierra Johnstun, 5, and Karissa Paddock, 2. The Lady Wildcats made just 10 of 28 free throw attempts and failed to connect on any three-point shots. Joseph City 11 14 10 11 46 Holbrook 11 20 18 14 63 “They really gave us some problems early on. I thought we would be able to pressure them full court, but we quickly found that if we don’t play at full speed on defense, Taylor Hill is too quick to trap. We had to pull our press off, and try to keep the ball away from their post players as best we could,” said Holbrook Coach Greg Perkins. “I thought Shandie stepped up and played well, and Samantha Smith, even though she didn’t score was a beast for us with her physical game, battling with their post player for much of the night. “We wanted to keep pushing the ball throughout the game knowing we could probably tire them out, which I think we did. Our bench played well when called on and we were just a deeper team. “It was good to see Aaren and Shantina both get their games going again on offense; we will certainly need them to play at a high level the rest of the way. “Joseph City is a tough team that has the components to cause a lot of teams problems in their division. We have to play them one more time, and we know we will be in for another battle,” the coach concluded. With the win Holbrook moves to 15-6 on the season. After playing a tough game in Window Rock on Thursday, the Lady Roadrunners will be back on the road for a match-up with Valley Sanders tonight (Jan. 13). Both those teams currently have just one power point loss between them. Joseph City fell to 5-3 in power point match-ups. The Lady Wildcats will host Cibecue tonight and rival Mogollon on Saturday.