Despite 25 missed layups Tuesday, Dec. 8, the Sedona Red Rock High School girls basketball team came away victorious in their home opener, defeating lowly Northwest Christian Academy, 46-14.
“Besides all the missed layups we had against Northwest Christian, I thought we played pretty well,” first-year Head Coach C.J. Sells said Tuesday after the game.
With the victory, Sedona improves its record to 1-1 overall on the season.
In the first six weeks of the season, Sedona has seen some of the top 4A conference teams in the state, losing to Mingus Union High School to start its schedule before Thanksgiving, and playing Prescott High School [4A-I] and Flagstaff High School [4A-II] in a scrimmage three weeks ago today.
Focusing on the present, the Scorpions went out and took care of business Tuesday, jumping all over the Crusaders from the beginning.
Senior forward Katie Adams from the tip was stellar, leading the game with 22 points on 10-20 shooting from the floor while pulling down 14 rebounds. Adams added six steals as well in the winning effort.
“I didn’t perform as well as I’d like to, but I think I played OK. We’ll keep practicing and getting better,” Adams said.
Adams added she missed a few layups in the game against Northwest Christian and wasn’t too happy about it, but in the end, her numbers were solid and she was happy with what she and her team had accomplished.
To begin the game, Adams won the tip and immediately ran to a block for an easy layup after a pass from a teammate to put Sedona up 2-0.
At the end of the quarter, Sedona led 16-1.
The constant full-court pressure defense by the Scorpions was too much for the Crusaders to handle as they folded quickly, giving Sedona easy layup after easy layup.
In the second quarter, Sedona continued to play good man-to-man defense and outscored Northwest Christian 18-3 to take a 34-4 lead at the break.
From then on Sells cleared the bench, playing everyone on the roster to get some varsity experience.
The scoring slowed down a bit for Sedona in the second half, outscoring Northwest Christian by only two at 12-10 to go on and win, 46-14.
Standouts included senior point guard Rita Clancy who scored nine points on 3-16 shooting and was 3-9 from the free-throw line.
Clancy also added nine steals, six assists and four rebounds in an outstanding effort from the senior guard.
Freshman center Tiana Hatler-Stefick scored seven points, hitting two buckets and going 3-4 from the free-throw line while adding one rebound and one steal.
Twin sister Sierra Hatler-Stefick scored four points and pulled down six rebounds with three steals, while sophomore guard Ashley Haas was the only other Scorpion to score with four points.
Also, junior Lila Rodriguez added five rebounds.
Next up, the Scorpions will take their 1-1 record north to Williams High School where they’re scheduled to play their next game Friday, Dec. 11.
The last time these two squads hooked up was in the beginning of December last year when Williams came from 16 points down with six minutes to go, claiming a 71-62 win. Sedona led 48-43 heading into the final period but were outscored 28-14 in the final eight minutes.
Tip-off is scheduled for
5:30 p.m.
Brian Bergner Jr. can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 131, or e-mail bbergner@larsonnewspapers.com
