Holbrook girls winning with defense

HOLBROOK, Ariz.

Reaching the latter stages of the Division III state tournament is a possibility for the Holbrook girls’ basketball team.

In recent weeks, the Lady Roadrunners have handled some of the state’s top squads so on paper it’s worthy to consider them as a likely Final Four contender.

They are even looked at as a dark horse to make this year’s finals.

The last time the Roadrunners got that kind of recognition was during the 2013 season when Holbrook reached the semifinals of the state tournament.

“I had seven seniors on that team and they had a lot of speed and no height,” Roadrunner coach Greg Perkins said.

The longtime Holbrook coach said there are some similarities from that team to this year’s squad, which boasts four seniors.

Like that team, the current Roadrunner squad have some good quality shooters. But the trait that parallels that Final Four team to this year’s group is what they do on defense.

In a recent contest against Tuba City, the Roadrunners did not give the Warriors any room to work with in the latter stages of the game as they posted a 62-49 win on Jan. 29.

The Roadrunners were very methodical with their defensive traps in that fourth quarter, as they didn’t allow a single field goal. For the most part their rotation was right on cue as they forced numerous turnovers.

“Last year we weren’t as good as that Final Four team but the seniors that I have are the ones that that picked up the whole concept of trapping,” Perkins said. “We work on that a lot and we don’t spend a ton of time on offense because we’re short.”

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