Holbrook’s girls team entered the Round Valley Tournament on the heels of three losses in four games and hoping to turn around their early season start. Through the first five games it looked as if the Birds had figured some things out but in the first three quarters of the championship game against St. Johns Holbrook struggled, although a lot of that struggle was the result of St. John’s effort and defense in the title game. Holbrook opened the tournament on Thursday, Dec. 12, in pool play games and they started quickly against what was at the time an undefeated Camp Verde team. Holbrook cruised to a 55-27 win behind 11 points from Desirae Bain, and 8 each from Jineane Cummings and Tyleashia Yazzie. Holbrook’s second game was another match up with an unbeaten squad when they met up with American Leadership Gilbert. ALA built a three-point lead through the first eight minutes. That lead would have been much larger if not for three treys in the quarter from Madison Chappell. In the second quarter, Holbrook stepped up their defense outscoring the bigger team 23-9 taking a 35-24 half time lead. Holbrook padded that lead in the third then went on to win the game 67-57. Chappell led the team in scoring with 19 points. Yazzie finished with 9. Holbrook’s first bracket game was on Friday morning and resulted in a 52-15 win over an overmatched Tonapha Valley team. Shan Footracer led the team with 15 points. Yazzie added 11, and Terry Nez helped with 9. The Lady Roadrunners faced Leading Edge Academy in the quarterfinal round on Friday night. Despite being severely undersized against them, Holbrook played a solid game advancing to the semi-final round with a 43-27 win. Chappell led in scoring with 11. Joycelynn Thomas added 9 with three treys, all coming in the first quarter. Alchesay was the semi-final opponent on Saturday morning. Holbrook started quickly with five points from Nez in the first helping the team build a seven point lead. Holbrook continued to play well in the second building a 31-20 lead. Alchesay made a late game run closing the game to 42-39 before Holbrook was able to pull away late to secure the 53-43 win. Chappell led with 19 points and Nez added 11. Holbrook met up with St. Johns in the championship game on Saturday afternoon. The Redskins outplayed Holbrook for the first 30 minutes of the championship game but the Roadrunners managed to pull out a four point win in the final two minutes claiming back to back Round Valley Tournament titles with a 39-35 win. Chappell led the way with 21 points. Bain added 8, including two huge three-point shots in the final minutes. Footracer added 6 with a pair of clutch free throws in the final seconds. “We headed into this tournament hoping to find some things to build on for the rest of the season and through the first five games we saw some advances in the right direction. We beat a couple of teams with much larger size and played a little better on defense, but we still have a long way to go on that end of the floor,” stated Coach Greg Perkins. “In the championship game I tried to convince the girls that St. Johns was a legitimate team, which played great defense and was fundamentally sound. I think based on prior years experiences they didn’t believe me. Once we found ourselves down by nine points late in the third, maybe the team was finally convinced at how good St. Johns is,” he said. “We were very fortunate to win the tournament this year. Madison came through in the clutch after sitting the whole second quarter due to foul trouble. Desirae didn’t play much but when she did play she hit two huge treys for us to help us get back in the game in the final few minutes. We need to continue to improve and have to stop having different girls not give 100 percent when they are in the game.” Chappell was named the Tournament MVP. Nez joined her on the All Tournament team, which was voted on by the coaches. Holbrook enters this week with an overall record of 7-3. However, they are just 1-3 in power point contests. Holbrook will host Chino Valley on Thursday and they will welcome in Window Rock on Friday. The team will be in the Chandler Prep tournament in the first week in January.