Players and coaches from the Sedona Red Rock High girls basketball team found out quickly in the Yvonne Johnson Memorial Shootout on Dec. 29-30 that if a few key players are sitting on the bench with foul trouble, the Scorpions will struggle on the court.

Players and coaches from the Sedona Red Rock High girls basketball team found out quickly in the Yvonne Johnson Memorial Shootout on Dec. 29-30 that if a few key players are sitting on the bench with foul trouble, the Scorpions will struggle on the court.
In their first 3A-West region game of the season on Tuesday, Jan. 6, that wasn’t the case, however, as the Sedona girls traveled to Estrella Foothills High in their first game back since the tournament and put a beating on the Wolves, 69-48.
Senior point guard Breanne Cunningham led all scores with 23 points and added six steals, five rebounds and three assists in the big victory for Sedona.
Junior forward Katie Adams didn’t have a bad night herself, scoring 18 points and pulling down 15 rebounds while clogging up the middle and playing great defense.
The dynamic duo are the two leaders on and off the court for the Scorpions and have no problem putting up the numbers they do on any given night.
“We have some players that can give us a good night every night. It’s up to the rest of the girls to fill in their roles,” second-year head coach John Cunningham said.
The first quarter is what told the story for the whole game on the Scorpions’ side of the ball when they came out on fire to outscore the Wolves 23-16.
Granted, converting fast break opportunities with layups after the Scorpions were able to record steals out of their pressure defense gave Sedona a high shooting percentage, but the ball still has to go in the bucket.
Sedona was able to take the ball from Estrella Foothills 15 times during the game.
In the second quarter, Sedona continued to put pressure on the Wolves and managed to outscore them 14-7 in the period, taking a 37-23 lead at the break.
Just like the previous two quarters, the Scorpions came out with intensity knowing full well if they didn’t continue to apply pressure, Estrella Foothills could get itself back in the game at any moment.
Other players began to put their stamp on the game with great hustle and smart play as sophomore Miki Jovanovic scored seven points and pulled nine rebounds in the game.
Sophomore Chelsea Strong supported the Scorpion endeavor, scoring only one point but pulling seven rebounds and recording one steal and one assist.
Efforts by sophomore Darlise Dougan and freshman Maria Micheli helped Sedona outscore the Wolves 21-9 in the third quarter to take a commanding 58-32 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Sedona played even-par for most of the final eight minutes and were outscored 16-11, but in the end the Scorpions claimed their ninth win of the season, 69-48.
With the victory Sedona improves to 9-5 on the season including a perfect 1-0 mark in the 3A-West region this season.
In the history of the Sedona girls basketball program, no team has ever won the regular season region championship.
The 2000-2001 group managed to win the region tournament championship to earn a spot in the state tournament but never has a team won the regular season title.