1A girls: Rock Point edges Fort Thomas in semifinal tilt

PRESCOTT

In a tough physical game, the Rock Point girls’ basketball team saw an 11-point advantage whittle down to nothing in a matter of minutes.

Rock Point (24-4 overall) was on the verge of losing its Arizona 1A state semifinal game but a late 6-2 run helped the second-seeded Lady Cougars secure a 45-41 win over No. 6 seed Fort Thomas before a capacity crowd at Yavapai Community College in Prescott on Friday night.

“This is a great feeling,” Rock Point junior Tierra John said about pulling out the four-point win. “This is going to be my first time playing in a state championship game.”

The Cougars will play No. 4 seed Baboquivari in today’s 1A finals at 3:30 p.m. at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley.

This will be Rock Point’s fourth try at a state title with the 2008, 2016 and 2017 teams finishing as the reserve champions.

Last year the Cougars got as far as the Final Four round but with the monkey off their backs John wants her team to win it all.

“I really want to bring home a gold ball for my community,” she said.

Despite his team surrendering a once sizable lead, Rock Point coach Andrew Reed was real pleased with the way his team responded late in the contest.

“We could have folded but the girls came back strong,” he said. “We were told that a storm was coming and I guess this is what they were talking about.”

With a 39-28 cushion at the start of the fourth, Reed said the game plan was to eat some clock and have Fort Thomas send them to the charity line.

But in remarkable fashion, the Lady Apaches scored 11 straight in a two-minute span thanks to a barrage of treys from senior Jordan Juan and sophomore Chase Stanley.

Stanley hit the first one while Juan hit the last two, as she tied the contest at 39-all with 4:10 left in the contest.

At the other end, Rock Point ended a five-minute scoring drought when junior guard Rylisha Begay hit an inside bucket for a 41-39 edge with 3:18 left in the contest.

Fort Thomas cut that margin in half with a free throw from senior Kyia Haws but that was as close as they would get as the Cougars tallied the last four points with buckets from Begay and sophomore post Tamira John.

“As captain I kept telling the girls that we had to stay mentally strong,” Tierra John said, while adding that it was tough to block out the noise coming from the Fort Thomas fans.

“They were really loud,” she said.

As a team the Cougars had only four players score with freshman forward Arianne Begay leading the way with 13 points.

Tamira John came in next with a dozen markers while her older sister, Tierra, helped out with 11 and Rylisha Begay chipped in nine.

For Fort Thomas, Stanley turned in a game-high 14 points while her teammate Vivianna Talgo scored 10. Juan added nine as the Apaches finished the season at 24-7 overall.

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