The Mingus Union High School girls basketball team came out slow of foot Tuesday, Dec. 13, losing to visiting Cactus Shadows High School, 48-42.
“We didn’t do a good job executing our game plan in the first half at all,” third-year Mingus Head Coach Micah Swenson said. “We never got to the free-throw line in the first half and did a poor job of rebounding.”
Mingus grabbed only 11 rebounds of the 29 missed shots on offense, and was down 33-19 at halftime.
The Marauders picked it up in the second half, outscoring the Falcons 9-8 in the third quarter and 14-7 in the fourth but it wasn’t enough in the 48-42 loss.
Swenson switched up the defense, which caused confusion on the part of the Falcons, and Mingus got to the line more often in the second half, but only went 10 of 17 from the charity stripe.
“We played hard but we just had too many little errors at the beginning,” senior Joni Olson said. “We came out hard in the second half but we still had too many mistakes. Over break we will work our hardest on minimizing those tiny mistakes.”
The Marauders were without the services of sophomore guard Angel Chavez, who broke her finger in practice Monday, Dec. 12. Chavez is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Junior guard Skyler Storie led all Mingus scorers with 10 points while junior forward Torey Gillies had nine points and six rebounds. Sophomore Monica Soliz had nine points and junior Seairah Ebert had eight rebounds.
“It was one of those games we should have won but had too many mistakes in the first half. We played tough in the second half but couldn’t break the gap,” Storie said.
With the loss, Mingus drops to 4-4 this season and is currently ranked No. 43 overall in the Division II Arizona Interscholastic Association power point polls, which were released Wednesday, Dec. 14.
Next up, Mingus will play host to Coconino High School on Friday, Dec. 16. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
