Farmington Girls Shoot for State Basketball Championship

It’s state championship or bust for the Farmington High School girls basketball team. You’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by Pop’s Truck and RV Center and Three Rivers Brewing. I’m Connor Shreve. After steamrolling through the regular season with more than 20 wins, it may come as no surprise that the Farmington Scorpions High School girls basketball team enters the state tournament as one of the championship favorites. It might be more of a surprise to learn the state title has been the team’s goal from day one.

When I first got this job, I felt we had a shot at it. And as we’ve played and done what we’ve done, I really feel we can. Now, we’ve got tough competition. 5A’s tough. Hobbs, who’s number one and there’s us, there’s Volcano Vista, Sandia, La Cueva, teams from Las Cruces area, Centennial, and Carlsbad. Albuquerque High’s got a heck of a team. They got a really good post player. So there’s 10 teams that in any given night can beat anybody.

Head coach Tom Adair knows what a championship team looks like, having won a handful in his more than three decade long coaching career. He’s been preparing this team for the state tournament all year.

We told them you got a target, so you got to be ready. Everyone’s going to come after you and play their best. So we want to make sure we’re playing at our best and so that’s what we’re talking about with the target. About would be Volcano Vista, who won State last year. So that was a big victory for us.

The Scorpions amassed some impressive wins this season, taking down last year’s state championship winner, Volcano Vista, in Albuquerque in July and snapping Kirtland Central’s winning streak before that. Senior guard Kamalani Anitielu has played a big role, averaging nearly 15 points per game.

We just really play together and there’s, like, a lot of help, including we have two more that are doing double digits, which are my sisters, and we just all come together and really play good together.

She says the team has fun on the court and feeds off each other’s energy.

This group is really different ’cause we have a lot of young talent still on the team and we have a bunch of seniors as well. But other than that, we just love coming together and playing together.

Coach Adair has seen the team’s joy firsthand and says that’s one of the reasons he’s had so much success during his debut season as Farmington’s head coach. He believes that’s why the Scorpions have made it unscathed through what he believes is New Mexico’s deepest 5A division.

I just love their attitude, their efforts and their passion about basketball. I just love basketball. They love to come shoot like they’ll just shoot for hours. And I love that. I never really have a team that love just shooting because usually they want to start playing games and stuff. But these girls, they’ll come in and they’ll shoot and work on their game and get better.

The Scorpions won their district and will get a high seed for the state tournament, which begins March 3rd. If all goes to plan, Farmington will complete their season at the pit on the campus of UNM, which hosts the final rounds of the 5A state tournament. Adair says the Farmington roster has six players who want to play basketball at the next level. He believes they have the ability to do that. The state tournament will provide them valuable experience. Thanks for watching the Local News Network. I’m Connor Shreve.