The Big Park Middle School boys basketball team has certainly struggled this season on the hardwood, but Coyote head coach Dan Wolf and his boys never quit as they earned a nice victory over Oak Creek Middle School.
“We stunk at the beginning of the season but we’ve really started to come into our own,” Wolf said in a post-game interview.
The Big Park Middle School boys basketball team has certainly struggled this season on the hardwood, but Coyote head coach Dan Wolf and his boys never quit as they earned a nice victory over Oak Creek Middle School on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 32-19.
“We stunk at the beginning of the season but we’ve really started to come into our own,” Wolf said in a post-game interview.
In their third victory of the season, eighth-graders Ryan Ramirez and Hunter Wagley led the charge for their Coyotes, scoring 19 of their teams 32 points in the victory on Tuesday.
Ramirez, who scored a game high 13 points, was all over the floor against Oak Creek with his aggressive play and basketball sense to help Big Park get over the hump.
“Ryan [Ramirez] was the difference maker against Oak Creek. He was very aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and we need that,” Wolf said.
In the first quarter Big Park took advantage of a sleepy Oak Creek team whose players looked like they were trying to find which side of the bed they wanted to get off of instead of playing hoops.
Big Park continued to pressure throughout the six-minute quarter and finally broke away with a few layups as the Coyotes took a 10-5 lead at the end of one quarter of play.
The second quarter brought life to the Oak Creek player bodies but scoring was still absent not only from them, but from Big Park as well as the Coyotes took a 14-11 lead into the locker room at halftime.
As both teams walked onto the floor after their respective coaches gave them a few more bits of advice, Big Park seemed to be the one who listened the most and took it to Oak Creek from the start.
The third quarter was all Coyotes with seventh-grade center Tony Aranda scoring a few buckets and eighth-grade forwards Andres Zorrilla and Keenan Crans chipping in as well to outscore Oak Creek 9-5 and take a 23-16 lead.
“I think we were ready to play. We created a few turnovers which turned into quick baskets and our players did their best to take care of the ball,” Wolf said.
The fourth quarter brought much of the same frustration and emptiness for Oak Creek as the Coyotes simply wouldn’t give in, scoring nine more points and allowing only four to go on and win the game, 32-19.
Other top performances by Big Park players included Aranda who had five points, Zorrilla with four points, and Crans put in one basket for two points.
Wagley ended the game with six points and seventh-grade point guard Carlos Rodriguez had no points but six assists on the night.
With the victory Big Park improves its record to 3-10 overall on the season with two games to go on the year, not including the region tournament.
Big Park played its final home game of the season on Thursday, Jan. 22, against Pine Middle School.
Results were unavailable at press time.
The final regular season game of the year for the Coyotes will come on Tuesday, Jan. 27, when they travel to crosstown rival West Sedona School.
West Sedona took the first game of the two back on Dec. 2, handing the Coyotes a loss.
This time around, Big Park will be looking for a little revenge. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Once the regular season is complete, Big Park will enter into the Verde Valley region tournament which is scheduled to begin on Friday, Jan. 30, and go through Saturday, Jan. 31.
Brian Bergner Jr. can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 131, or e-mail bbergner@larsonnewspapers.com
