Aubrie Sherwood clutched her personal strip of nylon from the net at Saturday’s 2A championship game and walked towards the stands. There, Sherwood reached across the temporary yellow barrier separating fans from players. Her mission wasn’t to great parents or siblings. It was to simply to hug Neveah Grant.
“It just means so much more,” Sherwood said of winning as a senior. “This is my last year of basketball, I won't do anything else. So it means so much and I'm so happy that we did it.” “I was very, very excited for the opportunity to play them again,” Sherwood said. “We've been talking about it all season. I knew they were gonna be here again. They have a really strong team and they brought all their players back.”
Immediately, the move paid dividends. Less than a minute into the quarter, junior Jayci McClain nailed Pima’s first field goal — a 3-pointer from the right wing. After a quick steal, Sherwood got a layup. Suddenly, the Roughriders had climbed out of their self-inflicted hole. In the final period, Pima’s defense made the difference, holding Red Rock to just four points on 2-of-10 shooting. After a Stephanie Medel layup to go up 36-33 with 3:48 left, the Scorpions didn’t score again.