Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Saydee Allred and the Pima Roughriders ran over the St. Johns Redskins 51-27 on Friday afternoon to move onto the championship game against Sedona Red Rock on Saturday.
Pima returns to the championship game
By Jon Johnson
PHOENIX – The defending 2A Champion Pima Roughriders girls basketball team found themselves in familiar territory Friday afternoon as they became set to defend their title against 2021 Runners-Up Sedona Red Rock.
“That’s going to be a good game,” said Pima head coach Roy Corona. “It’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be fun. I’m just happy we’re in it again.”
No. 1 Pima (10-0 region, 14-0 conference, 28-1 overall) punched its ticket to the big game with a 51-27 victory over No. 4 St. Johns on Friday afternoon. No. 2 Sedona (10-0 region, 12-0 conference, 24-1 overall) earned its repeat spot by defeating No. 3 St. John Paul II 59-46 earlier in the day.
Pima and Sedona both lost only to 4A Flagstaff in its own tournament this year. The two teams played an overtime thriller last year for the championship, which Pima won 50-48 on a 3-pointer by Aubrie Sherwood with just .1 of a second left on the clock. The teams will face off in the rematch this year on Saturday, Feb. 26, starting at 12 p.m. At Arizona Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.
Pima 51 St. Johns 27
The Roughriders started out slow, and St. Johns took the opening lead on a bucket by Hannah Burt, who would lead the Redskins with 11 points on the night.
What little was going for the Roughriders in the first quarter went mostly through center Ashlynn Chlarson who hit for 6 of her 10 points in the first quarter. The Redskins had no answer to Chlarson down low, but the rest of the Roughriders were quiet and Pima found itself up only 8-6 after one-quarter of play in the defensive battle.
“They (St. Johns) work hard and they’re fast,” Corona said. “I was worried because the speed of their guards can match our guards.”
Then the firecracker off the bench Jayci McClain came in and shook things up with a 3-pointer off the bat in the second quarter. McClain hit another long ball in the quarter (three total for the game for 12 points) and joined twins Aubrie and Ashlie Sherwood and Saydee Allred in utilizing coach Corona’s zone pressure to force some turnovers that turned into quick buckets and before you knew it Pima had doubled up St. Johns 17-8 with 6:12 left in the second quarter. However, St. Johns continued to battle, and a 3-pointer by Burt and some points by Aubrie Wilson (8 points) kept the Redskins in it but down 15-23 at the half.
“We hit a couple 3’s and then I put on that press and they (St. Johns) kind of panicked there for a little bit,” said Pima head coach Roy Corona. “We got that run off out press, which was really good for us.”
In the third, the vaunted Pima defense appeared and held St. Johns to just one field goal and two made free throws for four points in the entire quarter.
Meanwhile for Pima, McClain hit her third 3-pointer of the night and Allred went 4-4 from the line in the quarter to extend Pima’s lead to 38-19 with one quarter left to play. Allred was consistent throughout the game and scored a bucket in every quarter on her way to a game-high 17 points and went 7-8 from the line for the game. She also shared ball-handling and distributing duties, especially when St. Johns attempted some pressure full-court defense, which Pima easily broke.
Aubrie and Ashlie Sherwood also played a very scrappy game, with both going 4-6 from the line with one field goal for 6 points each. However, that stat line fails to acknowledge the numerous other areas filled positively by the twins.
Allred – the 3A South Region Player of the Year – and Aubrie Sherwood hit their free throws down the stretch in the fourth quarter to help Pima to a 51-27 victory.
Click here to view the Gila Herald’s Photo Album of the semifinals game.
