The Holbrook Lady Roadrunners finished as runners-up in the 16-team Sedona Red Rock Tournament held over the weekend. The Lady Birds fell to Safford in the championship game on Saturday afternoon. Holbrook opened the tournament on Thursday with solid pool play victories over Mayer and Piñon. The Roadrunners’ final pool play game was a setback to Round Valley on Friday morning, which placed them in the quarterfinal bracket against the top seeded home team, Sedona. Holbrook played better in Friday’s opening bracket game, upsetting Sedona, which earned the Birds a matchup with a very tall and athletic Thatcher team in the semifinal round Saturday. The Thatcher game may have been Holbrook’s best performance of the tournament as the Roadrunners held off a tough Lady Eagle team to advance to the title game. The Roadrunners defeated an overmatched, but hard working Mayer team 63-14. Dakota Dick led the way with 18 points. Quanyyah Lester added 11 and Ariyana Pratt also scored in double figures with 10. Holbrook defeated Piñon 55-22, led by Laure Brown’s team high 14 points. Lester again reached double figures with 11. Saturday morning’s game with Round Valley was about as ugly as they get. Holbrook tried to sleepwalk its way through the game, which rarely works out well. The Lady Elks gained momentum throughout the game and just outworked Holbrook in a 36-28 win over the Roadrunners, marking the first time they have beaten Holbrook in the past eight years. No Roadrunners scored in double figures. “Round Valley certainly deserved to win the game, but hopefully the girls learned a valuable lesson with the loss,” said Coach Greg Perkins. That moved the Roadrunners into Sedona’s portion of the bracket where they faced the home team on Friday night. Holbrook led by three at the half, but went to the fourth quarter knotted at 36-36. In the fourth the Roadrunners forced the Lady Scorpions out of their zone defense and built a lead late in the game, going on to win 53-47. Alishea Kee led Holbrook with 16 points. “Alishea played the best game of her career thus far for us. Also we shot the ball well against their zone, with eight different girls making three point shots. This was a good bounce back win after our performance against Round Valley earlier in the morning,” said the coach. In the semifinal game Holbrook faced off with Thatcher and all its height. The Roadrunners again shot the ball well from the outside, which was about their only option. The team made nine three-point shots led by Lester’s five from distance. Her 22 points helped Holbrook advance to the title game. “It was good to see Quanyyah finally break out of the slump she has been in since the first game of the season. Hopefully now she will take off and play with more confidence the rest of the way. We are certainly a better team when our two seniors play with confidence and play well,” Coach Perkins commented. In the title game Holbrook met up with highly ranked Safford. The first quarter went well enough, with the Lady Bulldogs leading by three at the end of it. The Roadrunners kept themselves in the game from the perimeter against a stingy Safford zone. Late in the second period Holbrook had some critical turnovers, which turned the momentum in Safford’s favor, giving the Buldogs a 10-point lead at the half. Holbrook battled back to within seven at the beginning of the fourth. During the fourth period the team got within five on a couple of occasions, but the shots stopped going down and Safford pulled away to win the championship game 64-51. “Overall, it was a good tournament for us. With a young team we went into the tournament hoping to improve and overall, I think we did,” said the coach. “We now have a clearer idea of things we need to work on in order to compete with our tough January schedule with games that count.” Holbrook is now 7-3 on the season and will host Ganado on Thursday, Dec. 17. On Monday, Dec. 21, the Roadrunners welcome in a very good Prescott team. That will be their final game until they play in the Valley Christian Tournament slated Dec. 28-30 in Chandler.