After upsetting No. 6 Benson in its first round playoff game, No. 11 Scottsdale Christian’s girls basketball team traveled to Sedona Red Rock High School trying to pull a second consecutive upset against the Scorpions in the quarterfinals of the 2A state tournament. The Scorpions, though, had other ideas.

It’s unlikely that any film of the game will ever be sent to the Basketball Hall of Fame to show the game in its purest form. But while the Sedona effort wasn’t always pretty, it was extremely effective, as the Scorpions never trailed and defeated the visiting Eagles 40-12.

“We did really good on defense,” SRRHS junior forward and captain Stephanie Medel said. “We definitely could have played a lot better on offense. I know that today was kind of an off day for offense. We just need to work on not turning the ball over as much as we did today. If we get that down, we’re practically unstoppable.”

Offensively, it was the kind of game that the Scorpions might have feared having in their first-round game against Arete Prep — when they were coming off of a two-week layoff. The opening minutes of the game were scoreless, Sedona scored only 10 points in the first quarter and put up no more than 12 in any quarter.

Freshman center Rachel Roderick led Sedona offensively with 13 points and was the only player from either team in double-digits. Junior guard Nyah Valdez and sophomore guard Annabelle Cook both had eight for SRRHS.

Leading 10-4 after the first quarter, the Scorpions scored only 10 points in the second. That presented Scottsdale Christian with a chance to get back in the game, but the Sedona defense would have none of it, pitching a clean shutout in the second quarter to take a commanding 20-4 lead at halftime. Junior guard Savannah Cardona finished the game with eight points to lead the Eagles. Two other Scottsdale players had two points. The rest of the team was held scoreless.

“We’re not a great team — we’re a good team that plays great defense,” Sedona coach Kirk Westervelt said. “If we can limit our turnovers and start hitting better free throws, I think we’ve got a shot against anyone to win the state tournament. But we’ve got to clean that up in practice. Free throws and turnovers.”

Whether the Scorpions are a great team can be debated. What can’t be debated is that they’ve had a great season. The win over the Eagles put the still-undefeated SRRHS team in the state semifinals. That game will be held on Friday, March 19, at Rancho Solano Prep at 5 p.m.

The Sedona girls will see a familiar opponent in 2A Central Region rival, No. 7 Valley Lutheran, who upset No. 2 Arizona Lutheran 52-45 in overtime in the quarterfinals. The Scorpions and Flames met twice during the regular season, with SRRHS winning both times. Sedona won 47-32 at home on Feb. 23 and 45-25 at Valley Lutheran in the rematch the following day.

If the Scorpions get by the Flames, they’ll face the winner of No. 1 Pima and No. 4 St. John’s in the state championship game. That will be held on Saturday, March 20, at St. John Paul II Catholic High School at 5 p.m.

“We need to stay focused in practice over this next week, keep up our defense in both games,” Valdez, a team captain, said. “Get some shots up in practice and hopefully they’ll be falling over these next two games.”

“Like the coaches said, tonight wasn’t our prettiest game,” she added. “We didn’t really score as much as we normally do and our shots weren’t really falling. But our defense won it for us tonight. And I think if we keep it up that we’ll be able to keep moving on.”