Despite a 3-0 start by the Mingus Rams boys basketball team, without better guard play, Clarkdale-Jerome School won’t be playing host to any Verde Valley League champions at the end of January.
Following the Mingus Rams’ second loss in their first three games, 20-16, at Mayer Elementary School on Tuesday, Nov. 17, that has become even more evident to a frustrated girls head coach Lacy Brown, who blamed the loss on “bad passing and not running our defense correctly,” she said. “Defense wins games.”
With seventh-grader Chayce Doerksen full of potential but unseasoned in the post, soccer player Zoey Arwine, despite being a rookie in terms of basketball experience, will need to step up to account for two early ineligible players.
“Zoey can handle the ball really well for never having played before,” Brown said. “She doesn’t know how to shoot outside yet, but she gets to the hoop from the wing.
“So we’re trying to run a two-point-guard offense where both of them are bringing the ball up.”
Arwine had 15 points in a 27-21 win Nov. 12 at Oak Creek School, along with eight points from fellow guard Olivia Gordon — the only eighth-graders on the team besides Aliyah Ramirez.
But the lack of experience was evident Nov. 10, when a full-court press dug the Mingus Rams too big a hole to climb out of in a 32-15 loss of its home opener against Camp Verde Middle School.
Beating Mayer at home Nov. 17, 37-6, to remain undefeated going into the season’s second week, doesn’t mean that boys head coach Rudy Sandoval doesn’t see plenty to work on.
For the full story, photos and schedules, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 18, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
