The Mingus Union High School girls basketball team could not handle the pressure put on by the visiting No. 1-ranked Flagstaff High School Eagles in its 63-23 4A Grand Canyon Section loss on Jan. 6.
Thirteen first quarter turnovers were an indication of how the entire game would play out, with Marauders head coach Frank Nevarez’s players unable to generate much offensively.
“The thought was to try to slow the game down,” Nevarez said. “If we could minimize our turnovers, and try to work against their zone, and obviously we did not do well in all three. That’s what they play every year, they’re very quick and so we thought if we could at least slow it down it would help us but we just couldn’t do it.”
Mingus [5-5, 2-3] started off with 1-0 and 4-2 leads in the early going after a three-pointer
by senior guard Destiny Razo.
But from there on it was all Eagles as they went on a 16-2 run to close out the quarter.
“For the most part they’re pretty physical,” Razo said “They’ve been pretty scrappy since my freshman year and I’m a senior. Ever since I started playing they’ve just been on the ball all the time.”
To attest to the Eagles’ physicality, Mingus was in the bonus within the first two minutes of the second quarter. But another double-digit quarter in the turnover category prevented it from getting opportunities to get to the free throw line, and at halftime was down 38-9.
“We haven’t been high pressured like that yet, like they’re a very quick team so to get right on us when we get the ball was hard to kind of deal with,” junior guard Nikki Zielinski said.
The second half showed improved offense from the Marauders, and they won the fourth quarter, 6-5.
“When we ran the offense, it worked and the tenacity, our attitude in the fourth quarter, we didn’t give up,” Nevarez said. “Destiny had a great fourth quarter as did [Nikki], Darien [Loring], we played well fourth quarter we really did, and so for me that gave us a lot of hope at least going forward.”
Razo noted that the Marauders, who on Tuesday, Jan. 3, fell 66-28 to Coconino High School, had a less-than-ideal two-game stretch to start the new year after not having practiced much over the winter break.
“I think that we started out pretty good and we played some hard teams, but that only makes us better,” Zielinski said. “So I think we’re still improving, we still have room for improvement, but we’re looking for a good ending.”
Mingus took on Lee Williams High School in another section contest on Jan. 10, but results were unavailable at press time. It next plays on Jan. 17 at Prescott High School to open the second round of section play.
