Before Brianna Arizmendi and Jaya Nelson joined the Salpointe Catholic High girls basketball team, they played against each other in club ball. Arizmendi and Nelson are part of Arizona League and AZ Supreme Hoops, respectably.
Now, they credit playing against each other for their chemistry on the court.
“It’s actually helped, I feel like,” Arizmendi said. “We have more appreciation of each other’s talents.”
Nelson agreed, saying: We never hated each other. We always made each other better through competition.”
The sophomores led the Lady Lancers to a dominating 51-23 win over Flowing Wells in the fourth game of the MLK Basketball Classic at McKale Center on Monday.
“In this tournament, they’re talking about the girls from CDO, the Tanque Verde girls, the Sabino and the Sahuaro girls,” Salpointe coach Justin Curran said. “(Arizmendi) could be one of the best players in Tucson and nobody’s talking about her. She’s all-around coachable, student, you name it.”
Arizmendi finished with 17 points, six steals, three rebounds and an assist. Nelson fell just short of posting a double-double with 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Because of other players’ experience in club ball and familiarity with each other, it helped build a stronger chemistry on the team.
Before Curran came in for the 2015-16 season, the Lady Lancers struggled to finish the season at .500, but they’ve taken a turn for the better over the last two years.
And the roster only has two seniors, who started playing for Salpointe when Curran came in.
“They’ve been through the thick of everything,” Curran said of the seniors. “Now, everybody’s just jumping on this bandwagon of being part of a team and getting better.”
In Monday’s game, Curran knew the Lady Cabs were going to play hard. They would run through a wall for their coach, Michael Perkins, so Curran wanted his team to come out and make a statement.
And they did.
The Lady Lancers shut out Flowing Wells 18-0 in the first quarter.
“Everyone had the jitters at first, but I think that, once the ball went up, it all went away,” Nelson said. “And I think we just really played as a team. Our defense was really well.”
Flowing Wells kept up with Salpointe in the second quarter, as each team had 12 points. But the Lancers took charge again in the second half.
The Lady Cabs pushed a full-court press onto the Lady Lancers’ offense, but weren’t able to recover.
Arizmendi said the team showed great communication through the entire game, especially when Flowing Wells was playing strong defense.
“I think we just calmed each other down,” Arizmendi said. “We weren’t too aggressive. We weren’t the aggressor, so I think that helped us out.”
The Lady Lancers (10-2) will continue their season against Class 4A Kino region rival Sahuaro on Tuesday.
The Lady Cougars have won the last three against Salpointe, but the Lady Lancers are hoping to get a different result this time.
“It’s our turn to be better,” Nelson said. “Everyone’s really excited. Everyone’s, I guess, nervous to see how it goes.”
