Despite an improved performance from their first matchup of the season, the Camp Verde High School girls basketball team fell in the season’s second Verde Valley rivalry game to host Sedona Red Rock High School, 63-28, on Friday, Jan. 27.
The Cowboys [15-7, 5-3 2A Central] were down 12-8 after the first, responding to an 8-0 opening scoring run by the Scorpions with three of the remaining five baskets in the quarter. Red Rock imposed its will with the 2-2-1 full-court zone defense it has run all season.
“They do almost the same thing every time so we’ve been working on it a lot, we’ve just been trying to slow down a little bit,” Cowboys freshman center Jacy Finley said. “Even if we get a 10 second call, we would rather have that and be able to set up our defense.”
But Red Rock picked up where it left off, sandwiching a Camp Verde basket in the middle of the second quarter with 12-2 and 10-0 scoring runs of its own.
By halftime the Scorpions led 37-13. Eighteen first-half points off of turnovers powered Red Rock, and the Cowboys mustered just five points in the second quarter.
“I think we could’ve done a lot better if we would’ve just slowed down when they were pressing us,” Finley said. “And we would’ve just thought it through a little more, and like were a little more aggressive and gotten our passes down.”
However during the teams’ first matchup on Jan. 10, Camp Verde’s ballhandlers had problems with turning the ball over. This time around, they seemed more comfortable, but with youth comes inexperience, and mistakes were still made.
A seven for 11 shooting clip in the third quarter for the Scorpions only further inflated their lead, and their substitutes played most of the fourth.
When things went right for Camp Verde on offense, it was when it got the ball inside to senior forward Kayla Hackett. Hackett had a hand in all of the Cowboys’ eight first-quarter points and with a total of nine points.
“Our posts have been doing a lot of post work, we do it every day,” Finley said. “Trying to go in strong to the basket so we can either have them hit us and get fouled.”
Her inside presence forced the Red Rock defenders to collapse in the middle, allowing her to find open perimeter shooters.
The Cowboys played at Paradise Honors High School on Tuesday, Jan. 31, but results were unavailable at press time.
They next play on senior night at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, against Northland Preparatory Academy in their final game of the regular season.
