Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Luis Guerrero shoots over Keegan Corona and Preston Russell. Guerrero and the Arizona Lutheran Coyotes came into Pima and stunned the defending champs 76-56 on Saturday.
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – The defending 2A State Boys Basketball Champion Pima Roughriders had their first home game of the season on Saturday against the Arizona Lutheran Coyotes, and the road-weary Roughriders were run out of the gym from the jump. The Coyotes opened with a 22-6 1st quarter explosion that the Roughriders could never recover.
The Coyotes hit 12 3-pointers on their way to a 76-56 victory over the Roughriders, who only hit one from deep all night.
Pima (3-0 region, 3-1 conference, 7-3 overall), will have nearly a month before it hosts another game. The Roughriders will be a visiting team at the 60th annual Eastern Arizona Boys Holiday Basketball Tournament on Dec. 27 – 29. Afterward, they will start the new year on the road at Snowflake on Jan. 4 and at Tucson Santa Rita on Jan. 8 before hosting back-to-back games on Jan. 10 versus the Benson Bobcats and Jan. 11 versus the Morenci Wildcats.
Arizona Lutheran has been impressive this season, amassing a 9-1 mark while blowing out most of their opponents. Their only loss was to 3A behemoth and my prediction for 3A Champs, Valley Christian, who beat down the Coyotes 89-36. But Valley Christian is going to beat down everybody this year – the team is so stacked.
Fresh from hitting the 1,000-point scoring mark the earliest in Arizona Lutheran history, Stephan Iron Shell started his way to 2,000 with two straight buckets to open the game against Pima. Iron Shell finished with a game-high 19 points.
While Iron Shell may be the big name with the local (San Carlos) following, the Gila Herald’s Player of the Game goes to point guard Luis Guerrero, who was magical with the ball all night.
Guerrero pressed the issue early and went for 8 of his 12 points in the devastating opening quarter. What was more impressive was how he handled the ball and set up his teammates for easy shots. Time after time he would somehow come up with a perfect pass for the assist. At one point in the start of the third quarter, Guerrero split his defenders, went up in the air between two more Roughriders, and made a no-look, behind-the-head pass to Owen Beilke for the uncontested 3-pointer. Needless to say, he was impressive in handling the ball and distributing it to his teammates.
The 6’5” junior swingman Beilke had a good night himself, finishing with 16 points while nailing three from deep, including two in the opening quarter.
The weather inside the gym got even more stormy in the second and it began to pour 3-pointers from the Arizona Lutheran side.
Ethan Kayenda hit all three of his 3’s and all 9 of his points in the quarter, and he was joined in on the long ball fun by Noah Draper, who hit two 3’s in the quarter, and Corey Riesop, who hit one of his two 3’s for the night in the quarter. In total, the Coyotes hit double from long range in the quarter than they did from the rest of the field. That helped push the lead to 48-25 by the half.
Pima started to find some offensive success in the second with Sam Ray making several drives to the bucket and hitting a couple of shots. Ray finished with a team-high 18 points.
Riley Alder hit a 3-pointer in the quarter and started a fast break with a rebound and outlet to Keegan Corona, who hit Rhett Hughes in stride for the easy layup. Alder finished the night with 11 points and Corona had some good looks (including a sweet step-back jumper) and finished with 8 points.
Preston Russell joined Ray in scoring in each quarter as the big man had a workman’s 11 points on the night, most from points in the paint, rebounds, and hustle.
Russell showed his range, however, and at one point in the third quarter led the fast break off a loose ball and got an assist with the push ahead to Ray for the easy bucket. That shot lowered the Coyotes’ lead to 19 points, 58-39, but the Roughriders would not get closer. The Coyotes went on an 8-0 run to close out the third to make the score 66-39, and added 10 more in the last quarter to make the final 76-56.
The loss drops Pima into second place in the 2A East behind Morenci. Region games begin in January.
