Sense of urgency: Holbrook, Winslow girls need strong finish to make playoffs

HOLBROOK – Longtime Holbrook girls basketball coach Greg Perkins is not one to predict the outcomes of future games.

Perkins, however, senses his injury-plagued Lady Roadrunner team, which has struggled to a 3-8 record, needs at least two more wins to make the Arizona 3A state playoffs for the 16th straight year.

“We have six games left and I think we need five wins for sure to get us in,” Perkins said last week. “We have three now. I’m not saying we’re going to beat anybody, but we have some potentially winnable games left in our schedule.”

Holbrook closes out the regular season with 2A Round Valley on Thursday followed by five region games: versus Blue Ridge (Saturday), top-ranked Show Low (Tuesday), Payson (Jan. 31), Winslow (Feb. 2) and Snowflake (Feb. 7).

“Blue Ridge is No. 6 in the state, Payson is at No. 8 and Show Low is the real deal,” Perkins said. “They kicked our butts when we got to play them at their place.

“There’s nothing going to be easy, but we just got to get two minimum or maybe three to get inside the top 23,” Perkins added.

As the paper went to print, the Roadrunners were holding down the No. 23 spot in the latest Arizona Interscholastic Association rankings.

The Perkins-coached team is looking to build on last week’s successful campaign as the Roadrunners picked up two must-wins in 3A East Region play. Holbrook defeated Payson 44-42 on Jan. 16 and on Thursday it outlasted Winslow, 48-41, before a large crowd at Holbrook High.

“In all honesty, we played much better against Payson than we did with Winslow,” Perkins said. “Tonight, we really didn’t play well. We just didn’t play a mentally smart game.

“Had we played with the effort we did with Payson I think we would have been winning going away,” he added. “It just wasn’t there tonight, and I think the girls were intimidated with the crowd we had. We’ve never had a big crowd like that this year.”

Holbrook outscored the Lady Bulldogs in every quarter except the fourth. The Roadrunners led 11-6 in the opening stanza, and they increased that five-point cushion to 27-21 at the break, which included a last-second trey from junior Holly Casamero.

In the fourth, the Roadrunners pushed their lead to as much as 11 points, 38-27, but Winslow refused to go away.

The Bulldogs put together an 8-3 run behind three baskets from sophomore guard Taylin Puhuhefvaya. Her two-point shot at the 2:11 mark drew Winslow as close as 41-35.

“It’s not the outcome we wanted but I’m really proud of my girls for battling back,” Winslow first-year coach Janeen Barton said. “They did their best, and they stuck it out tonight. It’s been a real challenging season with all the injuries and sickness we’ve had.

“I feel like this was the first time that we had a real solid group of starters out there,” she added. “They knew how to control the tempo, but I think (the final outcome) came down to conditioning. It goes back to our girls not being in shape because some of them have been out for some time.”

The Bulldogs made one final gasp as a layup by senior guard Jauslyn Nells made it a two-possession game with Winslow trailing 44-39 with 68 seconds left.

Nonetheless, Holbrook closed out the win when senior post Noheah Aberle, who is listed at 5’9’’, connected on her 14th and 16th points.

“With Noheah being banged up right now, we don’t have a true inside presence,” Perkins said. “She doesn’t have a lot of mobility yet, but she’s doing good right now. She’s had an injury that has bugged her all season, and she’s slowly getting better.”

Holbrook also got 10 points from sophomore Maya Francisco and eight from freshman Bailey Williams as the two underclassmen have picked up the slack for the injury-riddled team.

“With the injuries that we had my freshman and sophomore have played a lot of minutes they wouldn’t normally have played,” Perkins said. “They’re now starters and they have stepped into their new roles and they’re playing well. That’s the only good news coming out of all the injuries we had.”

Like Holbrook, Winslow is also in need of wins to make the playoffs. The 2-10 Bulldogs have six games left and their chances of making state are narrowing as the Bulldogs are ranked No. 29.

“We need to get on a winning streak,” Barton said. “If we can do that, it can help us get in there.”

When asked about Winslow’s success rate of making the playoffs, Barton was unsure of how many consecutive years the Bulldogs have made state.

“All I can tell you is it’s definitely a long streak,” the first-year coach said. “We don’t want to be the team that does not go to state.”

---