Hosting Alchesay for senior night on Tuesday, the Roadrunners shot lights out in the first eight minutes building a 29-8 lead and never looked back. They added another 20 points in the second to lead 49-16 at the break.
They cooled a bit in the second half, but the damage was done, with Holbrook cruising to the 68-37 home court win in front of a packed house at Munoz Gym.
Holbrook had four players in double figures led by Amare Nelson’s 17. Braylon Taliman added 16; Manny Rico, 13; Travis Bia, 11; Brady Becenti, 9; and Keith Thompson helped with 2.
The following night Holbrook wrapped up the regular season and the east region title with a 54-33 road win at Blue Ridge on Wednesday night.
The Birds have been shooting the ball well as of late and that trend continued in Lakeside. Holbrook made seven 3-point field goals in the win. Holbrook trailed by one at the end of the first but turned that into an 11-point lead at the half behind four of those treys. Two by Rico, and two by Becenti. Holbrook extended their lead in the third and cruised to the 21-point win.
Becenti led in scoring with 16 points. Nelson added 13; Rico, 12; Bia, 8; Manny Guerrero 3, and Taliman chipped in 2.
Holbrook won the east region title by virtue of the tiebreaker over Snowflake. Each team went 7-3 in region play, but the Roadrunners had the better overall 3A conference record as well as a high ranking in power points.
Holbrook finished the season ranked ninth in the final 3A rankings and moved up into the 16th and final spot in the Copper tournament rankings. Therefore, they will play in the first round of the Copper tournament on Wednesday night with a trip to San Tan Charter to face the top-ranked team in the Copper tournament. If they could manage an upset against one of the best offensive teams in the state they would then face either No. 8 Payson or No. 9 Coolidge in the second round.
A loss in either round and Holbrook would return to the 3A state championship bracket and play in the first round on Tuesday, Feb. 17. That game would potentially be in Holbrook pending the outcome of other Copper tournament games.
