Rock Point boys enjoying early success

Cougars improve to 7-1

PINON, Ariz.

With what they returned from last season, Rock Point senior Eronimo Hummingbird is not surprised with the teams’ early success heading into today’s Chandler Prep basketball tournament.

The Cougars upped their record 7-1 following their 72-54 win over Pinon last Saturday night.

“I think this is meant to happen,” Hummingbird said. “We only lost three players last year so we have a good group this year. We put in the work over the summer so we kind of expected this outcome.”

Hummingbird said the mentality for this year’s group is “to go out and win every single game.”

That approach stems from last year’s ouster in the 1A state quarterfinals to Fort Thomas as the tournament’s No. 3 seed ended Rock Point’s season by a 72-55 margin.

“That still leaves a bad taste in our mouths,” Hummingbird said. “It’s real bitter the way we lost because we could have done a lot better. It was pretty embarrassing so we’re carry that as motivation for this year.”

Rock Point coach Melvin Arthur said his team was devastated after the loss to Fort Thomas as his team was outplayed in every possible way.

Offensively, the Cougars were forced to be outside shooters as Fort Thomas clogged the driving lanes.

Defensively, Rock Point had a tough time containing then-sophomore post Latrell Titla and then-senior forward Kobe Talgo as both players combined for 33 points.

“Last year we really relied in man-to-man defense,” Arthur said. “It really worked for us during the regular season but when we played Fort Thomas we had to go with another type of defense.”

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