By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – The 48th annual EA Girls Holiday Basketball Tournament is in its final day, and the Pima Roughriders are in a position to repeat as Champions. First, however, they will have to get through the 3A Snowflake Lobos.
So far, no team has gotten within 20 points of Pima (2-0 conference, 8-0 overall) at the finish of a game, including the EA Holiday Tournament, where Pima has defeated Globe 87-7, Dysart 55-29, Thatcher 55-33, and St. David 80-20.
Snowflake has been equally impressive in the tournament, notching wins of 69-5 over Hayden, 63-21 over Thatcher, 57-23 over Dysart, and 53-45 over Fort Thomas. The girls’ championship game between Pima and Snowflake is set to start at 6:30 p.m. at EAC’s Guitteau Gymnasium.
Other scores from Friday include Safford 60 – Empire 18; Safford 52 – Globe 27; (Tucson) Empire 26 – Hayden 22; Hayden 16 – Globe 15; St. David 55 – Morenci 40; Fort Thomas 59 – Centennial 22; Thatcher 55 – Morenci 25, and Dysart 40 – Centennial 22.
For Saturday’s lineup, Morenci plays Centennial for 7th place starting at 8:30 a.m. at EAC; Globe plays (Tucson) Empire at 10:30 a.m. at Thatcher High School; Thatcher plays Dysart for 5th place at 11:30 a.m. at EAC; Safford plays Hayden at 1:30 p.m. at Thatcher High School; Fort Thomas plays St. David for 3rd place at 2:30 p.m. at EAC, and Pima plays Snowflake for the championship at 6:30 p.m. at EAC. The championship game is set to be live-streamed on EAC’s YouTube channel.
Pima 80 – St. David 20
Everyone on Pima’s team got a bucket, with Adysen Hoopes leading the way with 23 points, followed by Sadie Richardson with 14 points; Hanna Ashby and Kelsi Brimhall each had 8; Page Ashby and Cheyanne Alder each had 6; Kennedy Minor had 3 points, and Macy Allred, Alana Apodaca, and Morgan Russell all finished with 2 points each.
St. David’s Emma Hart and Regan Haynie had 5 points each; Paige Evans finished with 4 points, and Piper Merrill, Maya Deneweth, and Allison Spencer all finished with 2 points each.
The barrage started early and often as the Roughriders’ defense caused multiple turnovers and fast-break opportunities. Richardson scored 10 of her 14 in the opening quarter and Hoopes went for 11 of her game-high 17 in the quarter to decimate St. David 28-1 in the opening stanza.
No matter who you are, it is tough to come back from that, and it wasn’t a surprise when the game continued in its lopsided action as Pima put another 24 up in the second to go into halftime up 56-4.
St. David put up its best quarter in the mercy-ruled, running clock fourth with 9 team points.
