Across 55 years of basketball excellence at Sahuaro High School, keyed by more than 700 victories and four state championships by coach Dick McConnell, the Cougars have produced a legacy of Division I-bound college standouts: Dan and Jim Ferguson, Adrian Brown, Steve Williams, Gary Lewis and on and on.
Now comes junior point guard Cisco Llamas, who was probably Tucson’s top boys basketball player this season; Llamas averaged 21.1 points, second to Mountain View’s Isaiah Romero at 23.2.
Sahuaro’s Cisco Llamas (0), left and Jamaal McCraney (1) stop Deer Valley’s AJ Ajawin (23) at the state 4A championship at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on Feb. 29, 2024.
Because record-keeping and individual statistics totals before 2000 were often incomplete and inexact in high school sports, Sahuaro coach Jim Henry hasn’t been sure where Llamas’ three-year total of 1,472 points stands in Cougar history.
The answer appears to be that Matt Lohmeier, a starter on Sahuaro’s 2000 state title team, is likely the school’s career scoring leader, with about 1,550 points. It means that Llamas could surpass that total early next season in his push to score 2,000 points, a rare territory in Tucson that is headed by Santa Rita’s Terrell Stoglin, 2,901, Cholla’s Chuck Overton, 2,535, and Salpointe Catholic’s Sean Flannery, 2,332.
Sahuaro has gone 66-17 with Llamas starting at point guard his first three seasons for Henry.
