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Cactus Shadows hunts down Bears
Marc Buckhout ~ Managing Editor ~ 01/13/2010

The Cactus Shadows girls basketball program has racked up an 83-24 record in the state of Arizona dating back to the 2006-2007 season.
Having won 73 percent of their games during that stretch, losses of any kind have been uncommon, with the Falcons being on the short end of blowouts occurring even less frequently.
Entering the 2010 portion of their schedule the Falcons, who spent the holiday break in Wyoming, were looking to rebound following a pair of lopsided defeats.
“I think we used it as a learning experience,” Cactus Shadows coach Ryan Pletnick said about the trip to Wyoming. “One of the teams we played from Oregon had four Div-I players on it. We didn’t hang our heads. I think it helped us realize that we have to be more disciplined with our game.”
On Friday the Falcons, looking to rebound from consecutive 30 plus point losses over the holiday break to Oregon City and Campbell County in Wyoming, took the floor against the Bradshaw Mountain Bears.
“We did get beat up, but I think it showed us how much better we can be,” senior point guard Molly Shoulders said. “We held up for a while, but we want to get to where we’re able to run like some of those teams for the whole game.”
In Friday’s 55-15 victory, Cactus Shadows put the Bears in their cross hairs rolling to their second straight win in 2010. In dominant fashion the Falcons full-court pressure defense made the visitors more closely resemble the Bad News Bears as Cactus Shadows raced out to a 33-4 halftime edge.
“Cactus Shadows is known for playing good defense and we’re just trying to live up to and maintain that tradition,” Shoulders said. “We’re really working on closing out on shooters, getting a hand in their faces and making it tough. We’re also trying to get better with our help-side defense so we’re in position to stop drives to the basket.”
Pestering their opponent from baseline to baseline the Falcons made it difficult for the Bears to get a shot off during the game’s first 16 minutes. Taking a shot was only a slightly more regular occurrence than committing a turnover. At the half Bradshaw Mountain had taken 19 field goal attempts, making just two, while committing 16 turnovers.
Pletnick was pleased with the effort after his team didn’t allow a point for the game’s first four minutes and then held the Bears scoreless for more than 11 minutes before their second basket of the game.
“I’ve got 13 players that I can consistently rotate in and out of the game so we should be able to play defense with lots of energy every night,” he said.
While the defense was in full lock-down the Falcons spread the wealth on offense, with Shoulders playing the roll of lead distributor.
“Molly has been the engine to make us go,” Pletnick said. “We pretty much try and play the hot hand. She does a good job getting people involved. You look at our individual scoring averages and it’s so balanced. It really could be a different player on any night.”
In improving to 11-5 on the season the Falcons had 11 of their 13 players contribute in the scoring column led by senior Kaila Peluso who scored 10 points, with seven coming in the first quarter.
Pletnick said it’s simply a matter of developing chemistry.
“We had half of our team back from last year so the other half were new and we’re really showing now that we’ve learned how to play together,” he said. “We’ve figured it out.”
On Tuesday the Falcons opened up Desert Sky Region play at Saguaro, looking to knock off the 9-7 Sabercats (results were unavailable at press time).
The Falcons follow that up with a three-game home stand facing Queen Creek Friday, Apache Junction Jan. 19 and McClintock Jan. 22.
BOULDER CREEK
The Jaguars struggles have largely come on the offensive end during a 4-8 start to the season. Since putting up a season-high 70 points in the opening game, Nov. 23, Boulder Creek has surpassed 50 points only four times in their last 11 games. While they’ve gone 4-1 on the season when scoring 50 or more points the team is 0-7 when they fail to reach that total. Senior post Tina Boyle is averaging 17 points per game while point guard Daniela Panfil is putting up 10.5 points a night as the lone Jaguars averaging in double figures for a squad that is scoring 44 points per game. Boulder Creek, 1-2 in Northwest Region play, looked to even its region mark at Goldwater Tuesday (results were unavailable at press time). On Friday Boulder Creek plays host to Sandra Day O’Connor. The Eagles enter the game with a 6-6 mark overall, and a 1-2 region record.
BOYS
The Jaguars have remained hot to open 2010 as Randy Walker’s team improved to 3-0 in region play with a 64-35 win over Kingman on Friday.
On Tuesday they went after their sixth straight win when they played host to Goldwater (2-9, 1-2).
On Friday Boulder Creek (13-2) hits the road, heading down I-17 to take on Sandra Day O’Connor (5-5).
The Jaguars biggest challenge between now and the state tournament likely will be trying to ward off the effects of being in a weak Northwest Region. Despite having the third best record in 5A Div-II, with a 7-1 mark in games involving power ratings, Boulder Creek sits at No. 8 in the power ratings, which determine seeding for the state tournament.
The problem is that their sister schools are proving to be anchors as Sandra Day O’Connor, at No. 15, is the only school outside of Boulder Creek in the top 16 in the power ratings.
Along with Sandra Day at No. 15, Deer Valley is at No. 22, Kingman is No. 24, Valley Vista sits at No. 27, Goldwater is at No. 31 and Willow Canyon is ranked dead last at No. 32 among 5A Div-II programs.
Mountain Ridge, the region’s lone Div-I program, is No. 27 out of No. 31. Since Boulder Creek won’t be earning much in the way of points for their strength of schedule the Jaguars will be hard pressed to earn any more than one home playoff game in the state tournament.
CACTUS SHADOWS
Losers of six of their last seven, the Falcons have nose-dived to a 6-9 mark on the year. On Friday the team from Cave Creek fell to 0-2 in Desert Sky Region play with a 78-66 loss to Bradshaw Mountain.
The team from Cave Creek continued its search for its first region win Tuesday when they played host to Saguaro (results unavailable at press time). On Friday they hit the road, travelling to Queen Creek, to take on the 8-7 Bulldogs.

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