In a tournament where four of the top eight seeds lost Saturday, Feb. 18, the No. 13 Cowboys were a part of the upsets at the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, defeating No. 4-seeded Safford High School, 48-21.
The win advanced Camp Verde High School to the Division III quarterfinals Tuesday, Feb. 21, where it played No. 21 Chinle High School. Results at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott Valley were unavailable at press time.
“We’ve done well against the conventional basketball team, we match up well against them. Now it’s time to see how we do against an unconventional team,” longtime girls basketball Head Coach Mark Showers said.
Camp Verde opened state tournament play with an impressive 56-31 victory over No. 20 Cortez High School on Feb. 15.
At the Walkup Skydome on the campus of Northern Arizona University on Saturday, the Cowboys pulled off the third upset of the afternoon in their win over Safford.
The first upset came at noon when No. 11 Window Rock High School defeated No. 6 Holbrook High School, 64-50.
At 1:30 p.m., Chinle shocked No. 5 Thatcher High School, 50-41, and at 4:30 p.m., No. 3 Valley Sanders High School went down to No. 14 Tuba City High School, 69-53.
The Cowboys improved to 24-7 overall this season after beating Safford.
Camp Verde’s version of the big three did their jobs Saturday with juniors Donnie Buss and Amanda Showers each scoring 10 points while senior center Lila Hickey had 10 points, five rebounds and five blocked shots. Showers had five assists and two rebounds while Buss added three rebounds in the victory.
The Cowboys’ next opponent, Chinle will be quite a different ball game for Camp Verde since the Wildcats like to get up and down, press full court defensively and run on offense when they get the chance.
“This should be a fun ball game to watch. If we can get the ball up the floor and beat their press we’ll be just fine,” Mark Showers said.
Another key contributor to the win Saturday against the Safford Bulldogs was sophomore Maddy Showers who hit two big three-point baskets in the second quarter to help her Cowboys pull away.
Camp Verde led 8-5 after the first period but outscored the Bulldogs 17-4 in the second period to lead 25-9 at the half, a lead the Cowboys would hold for the win.
“Maddy [Showers] is starting to get her confidence.
She’s really come on strong here in the last three weeks, which is good for us,” Mark Showers said.
If the Cowboys were able to hold on for a win Tuesday against Chinle, Camp Verde would advance to the Division III state semifinals Friday, Feb. 24, at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale.
Camp Verde would play the winner out of No. 1 Page and No. 8 Buckeye high schools.
Tipoff for the state semifinals in Glendale is set for 6:15 p.m.
