Mingus Union High School’s girls basketball team went 1-4 in the Seventh Annual Red Rock Hoops Classic on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2, at Sedona Red Rock High School.
Staying within the offense was key to the Marauders’ better performances. Moving forward, head coach Frank Nevarez wants to sew together more consistent efforts.
“We get to a place where we’re doing well and all of a sudden it’s like we have to play a different way, and so I’m not quite sure why that’s happening,” Nevarez said. “I need to find out, but if we can correct that, we’ll be very competitive in every game we play.”
Day two of the tournament saw the team play against eventual champion Betty H. Fairfax High School, losing 43-28. Rounding out the tournament the Marauders lost to Yuma High School 29-20.
A strong defense was the catalyst to its best offense. At times it ran a zone that forced turnovers, leading to easy buckets.
The Marauders went 1-2 in pool play on Dec. 1, opening with a 60-24 loss to 6A Westwood High School.
The Marauders bounced back for a 35-16 win over Greyhills Academy High School. They were trailing 4-0 before turning things around, with Zielinski grabbing consecutive steals and scores to make it 9-4. Mingus led just 13-7 at halftime.
In the last game of the day the Marauders dropped a 39-24 decision to Snowflake High School. Junior guard Darien Loring hit a three-pointer to open a 4-2 lead, but the Lobos bounded back to go up 13-7 at the half.
Loring hit another triple at the outset of the second half to cut the deficit to 17-12. Lobos senior guard Nikita Olms responded with the first of her four second-half threes to regain the eight-point lead.
Mingus turned the ball over against Snowflake’s defense throughout the game. When it did establish an offense in the halfcourt, shots were rushed.
“We just beat ourselves, bottom line. We started out well; when we ran our plays we were scoring but we just got ourselves out of our plan, and it tends to hurt us,” Nevarez said. “I think that’s exactly what happened tonight. We just got ourselves out of the scheme that we had planned, and it came back and it hurt us.”
