Rock Point girls score signature win

BURNSIDE JUNCTION, Ariz.

Rock Point girls basketball coach Andrew Reed doesn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket.

But a 54-52 win over Ganado on Monday night put the rest of the state on notice.

“Everybody is going to look at us because of this win,” Reed said. “People are going to say ‘Wait a minute. These guys have a good squad.’”

While it’s still early in the season with a lot of games to be played, Reed said Monday’s victory does a lot for the program he’s building.

“This means a lot to us, especially going up against a 3A school,” the third-year coach said. “This game will help build our confidence and I think they now know that they can play with anybody.”

With both teams exchanging mini-runs throughout the contest, the Cougars took advantage of three Ganado turnovers midway through the fourth to seize a 50-41 cushion with 3:27 left on a putback by senior Chrystalana Clark.

“It was a huge lead for us,” Reed said. “I told my girls that we have to play smart basketball. We have to play smart on defense and on offense so when we did that we were able to grab that lead.”

With state title ambitions, Reed said this year’s team has a chance to capture the school’s first state title as he returns all but two players from last year’s squad.

“These girls have experience and I do have some freshmen on my team,” he said. “I have other freshmen on my JV team so we’re going to be strong the next three years.”
Ganado coach Mike Bitsuie said he’s not surprise with the outcome of the game. In fact, he knew Rock Point would be a tough team to handle.

“Give Rock Point credit,” he said. “I know they were going to be a good team. They packed that zone and they made us work for our shots. This is our first game of the season and we’re going to get better.

“We just have to keep our confidence up and keep believing in ourselves,” he said. “This is a young team I have and they don’t have a lot of experience. We lost a lot of seniors last year and I was telling them ‘This is your team and you need to find their identity.’”

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