The postseason mantra – one game at a time – hits a lot harder for those who have been upset in the first round.
The four remaining members of the 2013-14 Sahuaro girls basketball team don’t remember the details, but their first-round exit to Scottsdale Notre Dame serves as a reminder that the seeding doesn’t actually count towards the score.
The Cougars rebounded from a disappointing finish in 2014 and reached the Division II quarterfinals a year ago, with wins over Flowing Wells and Yuma Cibola before falling to perennial power Chandler Seton Catholic, the eventual runner-up.
Sahuaro’s quest for another deep run this year begins with another showdown against Notre Dame on Wednesday night. And the 13th-seeded Cougars, who have won 10 of their last 11 games, hope this year’s first-round meeting goes a little smoother.
“I don’t think there is specifically a revenge factor, they just want to win,” longtime coach Steve Botkin. “Having a nice run last year to the final eight is something more fresh in their memories and they want to go a step further this year."
It’s almost a nearly identical situation as in 2014, when the No. 14 Cougars and No. 20 Saints squared off: Sahuaro jumped out to a 15-6 lead after one, but scored just a combined 12 points in the second and third quarters, as the team’s leading scorer Sydney Harden, now a senior, found herself on the bench in foul trouble.
One of the best low post player in the division, if not the state, Harden finished with eight points in the 46-43 loss. Fellow sophomore Reazsha Benjamin scored a team-high 12 points. The versatile and uber athletic Benjamin also recorded six rebounds, five assists and two swipes.
The winners this time around will play at No. 4 Tucson High on Friday at 7 p.m.
Along with Benjamin and Harden, senior Shelby Mattice and junior Elena Arriaga round out a group that has been playing together for the past three years.
“This group has played 90-100 games together,” Botkin said. “They’ve got a really good feel for where each other are on the floor and that’s something that’s kind of hard to coach, it’s just something repetition has helped.”
The Cougars are giving up just 27.5 points per contest, while averaging 51.4 on offense during that same stretch. That’s not good news for a Notre Dame team that has lost six of its last eight, including the last two by a combined 52 points.
“Defense always wins games,” Benjamin said about her team’s recent refocus on extending their defense, rushing shooters and playing with more energy. “If you do it right on the defense side, offensive will automatically come.”
Sahuaro is hoping the extra work the players put in this offseason, will be the difference. The Cougars are running more man-to-man defense as a result of better conditioning.
“Everybody on the team has pushed themselves a lot harder,” said Harden. “From Day 1 of school starting, it was like alright we are going to go, we are to work. We were on the track, in the weight room, and just doing a bunch of stuff as a team.”
