The Clarkdale-Jerome School boys basketball team rode a 29-6 halftime edge over Camp Verde Middle School to remain undefeated through the first half of the season Dec. 15, for the second straight year.
Even though head coach Rudy Sandoval emptied his bench in the 45-23 final, calling the victory “a total team effort, scoring-wise,” eighth-grader Rakeem Honwytewa made the difference in the paint for the Mingus Rams, now 8-0 in the Verde Valley League.
“We jumped on them early,” Sandoval said. “They just didn’t get into it.”
Cowboys point guard and leading scorer Jason Collier struggled, as Sandoval assigned two defenders to chase the eighth-grader everywhere on the court — seventh-grader Andrew Nahar and eighth-grader Tristan Wright.
The home win marked a season sweep of the Cowboys [3-4], who were led in scoring by eighth-grader Manuel Interriano.
Although the Beaver Creek School, in Rimrock, was expected to “whump on everyone this year,” in Sandoval’s words, the Mingus Rams have ridden Honwytewa’s talents to two wins over the Bobcats — including the Dec. 12 championship of the Clarkdale Christmas Tournament in which he hit the game-winner as the Mingus Rams overcame 21 missed free throws to win, 35-34.
“The last time we played Camp Verde, we didn’t have him,” Sandoval said. “If we didn’t have him both games against Beaver Creek, we wouldn’t have beaten them.”
