If there was any doubt that Sedona Red Rock High School’s girls basketball team would remain undefeated when it hosted North Pointe Prep on Saturday, Feb. 13, it was erased early.
The Scorpions dominated the game throughout, scoring as many points in the opening three minutes as the Falcons scored all game. In the end, Sedona was on the right side of a lopsided 92-14 final score, moving to 6-0 in the process.
“I think we worked together really well and played good defense,” freshman center Rachel Roderick said. “We did good altogether and played really well as a team.”
Roderick led the game with 20 points and was one of three Scorpions to outscore the entire Falcons team. Sophomore forward Helen Westervelt was right behind Roderick with 19 points while junior guard Nyah Valdez was just behind her with 18. The other two Sedona starters, junior forward Stephanie Medel and sophomore guard Annabelle Cook, both notched double digit point totals, finishing with 11 and 10, respectively.
For Sedona, one of the perks of winning a game so decisively was getting to empty the bench and getting quality minutes for the reserves. Junior guard Hannah Lanchbury and sophomore guard Leah Pedersen both scored five points off of the bench. Freshman guard Skyla Bird and sophomore forward Annalee Dearden each scored two points.
SRRHS coach Kirk Westervelt was pleased with the minutes that his bench got, as well as with the crispness that his starters played with.
“The bench came in and played good — obviously the starters are hard to evaluate,” he said. “We didn’t want any injuries and nobody got injured. We didn’t play sloppy. I didn’t want to have to call plays because you try to muck it up sometimes and that’s when you get injured. So I said, ‘just run, use your legs.’”
The Scorpions are not only perfect on the season but have not been seriously tested by any opponent. Their closest win was a 52-25 victory over Chino Valley. Through the win over the Falcons, no other game has been within 30 — or even 40 — points.
That begs a natural question. With the tougher part of the SRRHS schedule awaiting, how well with this team — which hasn’t played a close basketball game since last season — handle a more even contest? Westervelt noted that the way he runs practice, he isn’t especially concerned.
“We practice hard in practice — I’m not easy,” he said. “The games to me are gravy. They’re hard practices. You don’t take it off. And I told them on Monday to bring your lunch pail. We’re going hard on Monday. But it could be a problem. You can only play who’s on the schedule. But I would like to have tougher teams. It’s not fair to the girls that you play against — or us — when we have games like this.”
Lesly Suarez, the lone senior on the Sedona team, agreed.
“At practice is where we tweak stuff,” she said. “And when we scrimmage against each other, it’s tough. So in a sense we’re our own competition.”
The Scorpions have a busy week ahead, which includes one of the season’s biggest games. On Tuesday, Sedona, which was ranked No. 9 in 2A ahead of Saturday’s game, went on the road to take on No. 13 Glendale Prep. Sedona got its toughest test of the season, but passed, beating the Griffins 54-43.
The SRRHS team now faces back-to-back games with Desert Heights Prep Academy. The Scorpions will host the game on Wednesday, Feb. 17, while the Coyotes will be at home on Friday, Feb. 19. Sedona will then host Camp Verde on Saturday, Feb. 20, to conclude the four-game week.
The following week, the Scorpion girls will have the two biggest games of their regular season on consecutive days against the same opponent — No. 5 Valley Lutheran. On Tuesday, Feb. 23, the Scorpions will host the Flames. The following day, Valley Lutheran will be home for a game against Sedona.
Those games, and all others remaining on the SRRHS schedule, are slated to start at 5:30 p.m.
