Sedona Red Rock High School went 2-3 at its home boys basketball tournament, the Red Rock Classic, concluding a seven-game stretch to open its first week of play by cruising Saturday, Dec. 5, over Red Mesa High School.

After a knee injury suffered in a car accident held him out of the Scorpions’ first six games, junior Dawson Stevenson returned to score 10 points in less than 10 minutes in a 54-38 win over the Redskins.

That was no surprise to head coach C.J. Sells.

“No, not at all,” he said of the game’s second-leading scorer and his tallest player at 6 feet, 3 inches. “He’s a very good player who’s going to help us. He was welcomed back with open arms, that’s for doggone sure.”

Stevenson’s slightly shorter, slightly older brother, Wyatt, led SRRHS [4-3] with 13 points in its only game of the day following three tournament games the day before.

“Overall, we didn’t shoot the ball very well in the tournament, and we didn’t rebound, to boot,” Sells said.  “I attribute that to having tired legs. But, individually, we had good performances.”

Including 17 points from sophomore guard Sebastian Morales in a 56-51 loss to Payson High School that Sells still thinks he should have won.

“We play them again [Wednesday, Jan. 20] with five players that didn’t play the first game,” said Sells, whose team led the Longhorns, 46-40, after three quarters but scored just five points in the fourth. “I told their coach that he won’t recognize us. We played Payson and Red Mesa with seven healthy basketball players.”

Two of whom were junior varsity players, freshman Charlie Parrella and junior Luke Doerner, called up just for the tournament.

“Essentially, I lost four starters after we broke camp,” Sells said. “The silver lining to all of it is that the kids that are playing got valuable minutes against good teams. We’ll have a little bit deeper bench.”

Doerner and Parrella were Sells’ only bench in the Scorpions’ final two games of the Classic.

“We spent seven games [last] week figuring out who’s going to play, and we’re going to have to kind of start all over with our rotations,” said Sells, who also expects junior forward Walker Cox to play for the first time this season Wednesday, Dec. 9, at Phoenix Christian Junior/Senior High School. “What’s really going to be different is, to be honest, when I look down our bench and see six guys, I won’t know who to sub. It changes the team dynamic dramatically.”

Two days after what Sells hopes will be a much-needed breather against the Cougars, his varsity will dive back into tournament play with four games in two days at the Wrangler Cage Classic in Wickenburg.

“It benefits, because we’re going to, hopefully, have a full complement of 11 varsity players for the first time this season,” said Sells, whose sophomore forward, Winston Cox, hurt his ankle in a 52-43 loss Thursday, Dec. 3, to Page High School. “Fingers crossed for that.”

The Scorpions will open pool play Friday, Dec. 11, with games at 10 a.m. and noon against Mayer and Wickenburg high schools, respectively. At least two games of bracket play in the nine-team field will follow Saturday, Dec. 12, after their Dec. 9 road tilt with the Cougars, who are coming off a 59-14 loss at Camelback High School.

“To be honest, they’re having a down year,” Sells said. “It’s a good game for us to play against someone not real strong. Hopefully, we get back to playing the way I want to play.”

That didn’t happen in the Scorpions’ first two games of the Classic. After falling to Page, they turned around the next day and got blasted by Blue Ridge High School by 35 points.

“If I played Blue Ridge 10 times, they would’ve beaten us 10 times,” Sells described the 98-63 loss to the Yellowjackets in which they hit 15 three-point shots. “I told the boys, after their first two games, not to get too full of themselves. The mistakes we made then, we need to learn from as we start playing better opponents.”

After blowing a 10-point lead with three straight turnovers in their second of three games Dec. 4, the Scorpions would redeem themselves in their closest win of the season, 65-62 over Horizon Honors High School.

“If they had made their free throws, it would’ve been different,” Sells said. “Thank goodness they didn’t.”

After the Eagles’ final empty two-shot trip, Morales tied the game with a three-point play the old-fashioned way. Their next trip downcourt, the Eagles would hit just one of two free throws, and Morales’ fadeaway gave SRRHS the lead back for good with a minute to play.

Free throws by junior Randy Rodriguez and sophomore Hayden Bruce, who finished with nine points, five rebounds and three steals, sealed the victory for the Scorpions after Wyatt Stevenson, who added 10 rebounds, stole the Eagles’ inbounds pass on their final possession.

“Rebounding is desire and determination, and we just didn’t get after it hard enough,” Sells said. “So we don’t have an excuse for not rebounding, except that we’re just not very good at it.

“That’ll change.”