- Slug: Sports–Saguaro Basketball Season. 570 words.
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By Nicholas Furman
Cronkite News
SCOTTSDALE – After many years of struggles, the Saguaro High School boys varsity basketball team is turning heads this season. Long known for its domination in football as one of the best programs in the state, Saguaro is making a strong case to change its narrative on the hardwood.
After posting a 16-33 record over the past two seasons and a 4-21 mark during the 2019-20 regular season, the Sabercats are 15-6 and sit in third place in the 4A Desert Sky region.
Fifth-year Sabercats coach Lucas Ramirez has his team playing its best basketball down the stretch with one pivotal difference.
“You get better players. It’s pretty simple. We have had really nice kids in our program. We’ve had kids who have enjoyed basketball and liked basketball,” Ramirez said. “We haven’t had a group of kids like this that collectively love basketball.”
This is Ramirez’s first head coaching job, and he has no plans to leave anytime soon. Ramirez has stayed true to himself as a coach even through the years of the struggle.
The Sabercats play a fast and physical brand of basketball, with an offense that won’t allow the opposing defense to catch up and a defense that will suffocate the opposing offense.
Sabercats freshman phenom Nas Hailey leads the team with 12.6 points per game and credits Ramirez for the program’s turnaround.
“It’s the energy he brings, he always expects more from us,” Hailey said. “He always wants us to be at our best and I appreciate him for that.”
Senior captain O’shea Bonner, who has played under Ramirez for the past three seasons, has witnessed the team’s highs and lows in recent years. But the Sabercats endured and learned from the losing seasons to produce their best season in recent memory.
Like Haily, Bonner believes the team’s identity has evolved over time.
“Our energy, like defensively we are talking way more, we are shooting the ball more,” Bonner said. “We have better chemistry this year than we did ever, we have good energy off and on the bench.”
Last Thursday, the Sabercats put that passion on display against Arcadia High School. Ramirez started three freshmen who combined to score 47 points. Alongside Hailey, Bentley Elrod and Pierce Harrington helped set the tone for a 71-57 win.
Hailey led with a game-high 26 points, and fellow freshman Elrod scored 16.
“It’s next man up mentality, and that was the message today and guys stepped up,” Ramirez said. “They were awesome, they were tough, they were gritty and had to play through some adversity, some foul trouble, some sloppiness but good teams find ways to win.”
Saguaro only has four games left in the regular season against St. Mary’s, Marcos de Niza and Cactus Shadows, who beat the Sabercats in January. Ramirez’s team will use the final games to fine-tune for the postseason, but he isn’t a coach who looks too far into the future and prefers to take it one game at a time.
“I have no idea. I don’t like looking at the rankings,” Ramirez said about the playoff picture. “I don’t like getting in that game of predicting things. I know that we have a really nice group. I know that group can compete with a lot of teams around Arizona if we keep doing what we need to do we will be in a pretty good position to make a run this year.”
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