While a good first quarter in a basketball game doesn’t necessarily guarantee a victory, it can be quite helpful. That was the case for the Mingus girls basketball team in its home game against Barry Goldwater High School on Friday, Feb. 12.
The Marauders jumped out to a 22-8 lead on the Bulldogs after the first quarter. While they battled occasional consistency issues for the subsequent three quarters, the game was never especially close. In the end, Mingus defeated Goldwater 57-36.
“I think it’s important to start strong,” Marauders senior forward Chayce Doerksen said. “When we score immediately it helps us get motivation and helps us keep momentum throughout the game. And it also gets them flustered.”
Doerksen led the Mingus offense on the night, scoring 20 points — eight of which came in the first quarter. Junior guard Mariana Lopez was the only Marauder to score in all four quarters and finished the game with 11 points. Senior guard Yazmein Mestas and junior guard Jade Bach added nine and seven points, respectively.
Even in a winning effort, Mingus definitely found some things to work on. One was offensive consistency. While 22 points in the first quarter and 16 in the third were solid offensive outputs, the offense struggled some in the second and fourth quarters. Additionally, the Marauders allowed 16 free throws to the Bulldogs. While Goldwater made only seven of those attempts, too much fouling is definitely something that can cost Mingus in a closer game.
“It was a little rocky, to be honest,” Mestas said. “It definitely wasn’t our best. I think we can play a little more under control. We were a little wild tonight.”
“Tonight we won but we did a lot of things wrong,” her coach, Paul Ventura added. “A lot of things we had to talk about. The good thing is that we have a few days of practice going ahead which is going to help us.”
The Marauders could be excused some for not being 100% sharp, especially in a winning effort. The game against the Bulldogs was their fourth in the week. And while the week was busy for the Mingus team, it was also beneficial.
When the Marauders hosted Marcos de Niza on Monday, Feb 8, they were winless. Mingus not only won that night but defeated Bradshaw Mountain on Thursday then Goldwater on Friday for a three-win week. Only a 62-44 loss to Lee Williams on Tuesday kept the Marauders from enjoying a perfect week.
“I’m proud of these girls,” Doerksen said of her teammates. “It was a hard week with four games. But I’m thankful for how hard they worked and thankful for my coaches.”
Another quirk of the schedule is that the Marauders are going immediately from the busiest week of their season to the lightest. Mingus will not be in action again until Friday, Feb. 19, in a road game against Deer Valley.
“It’s a COVID schedule,” Ventura said. “Four games in a week is rough. To go from that to one game, we should be prepared. It’s going to be good.”
The win over Goldwater moved Mingus to 3-7 overall on the season. It was a freedom game, so their 1-6 mark in the 4A Grand Canyon record remains unchanged. The game with Deer Valley is also a freedom game. Mingus will resume its region schedule on Monday, Feb. 15, with a 5:30 p.m. home game against Prescott.
The Marauders entered the game with Goldwater ranked No. 34 in the 4A Conference rankings. The next rankings will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 16. In order to earn a spot in a state play-in game, they will need to jump 10 spots and be seeded no worse than No. 24 by the end of the regular season. That will certainly require a strong finish over the season’s final seven games.
Whether that happens remains to be seen. But Ventura has seen the Marauders take a sizable step in the right direction.
“We’re getting better,” he said. “That’s our goal every day, to get a little bit better. As a collective unit, their mentality is changing and they’re starting to think like a winning team instead of almost a desperate team — I think they were desperate to get a win. Now they’re starting to change that thought process. It’s becoming, ‘We should win each game. We should be in each game. Be competitive. We should be able to come out with a win after it.’”
Even in a shorter-than-normal season, the number of games that basketball teams play makes it difficult to imagine too much changing for that team during any five-day period of the regular season. But as Mingus showed, it’s not impossible.
“I knew that this was going to be a turning point,” he added. “I expected to have a couple of wins coming into the week and truthfully there were a few that we should have won. So I expected that coming in and thought this could be the week where things turn around. Unfortunately, we came in with zero wins and this week became really important. And it helps. Five days, it’s insane how much can get going.”
