Give it away now: turnovers haunt Yuma in loss to Kofa

On the last home game of the season for the Kofa girls basketball team, the school gave away an XBox 360 at halftime against Yuma.

Then in the third quarter, the Criminals' caught the spirit of giving, giving the ball away 11 times in a two-point third quarter of a 54-28 loss to the Kings.

Kofa (6-10 overall, 4-3 Gila Valley Region) scored 20 of the game's first 22 points thanks to not only red-hot shooting on its part (10-for-14 in the first quarter) but also ice-cold shooting for Yuma (5-12, 2-7), which missed its first nine shots.

In the second quarter, however, the Criminals stormed back, rolling off 13 straight points to pull within 23-17. Yuma scored 15 of its 28 points in the second quarter.

"They worked the ball really well and they didn't give up," in the second quarter Yuma coach Bridget Lamoreaux said.

Up 10 at halftime, Kofa scored the first 11 of the third quarter to put the game out of reach.

Coach Eric Krepps said the Kings made a minor adjustment to who they played on the front line in the second half, but gave most of the credit to the team.

"They started playing some good offense, we weren't playing very good defense, and it lead to a comeback," Krepps said. "But we made a couple changes at half - nothing too spectacular.

"We relaxed a little bit in the second quarter; you can't do that," he said. "You have to keep the intensity up throughout the game."

Three players reached double figures for the Kings - Regina Brown (11), Lisa Arviso (13) and Erin Camacho (11). Brown had six of Kofa's 21 steals, while Arviso and Camacho tied for the team lead with six rebounds.

Maggie Smith's nine points paced Yuma, while Aisha Abadi and Maggie Zamudio had nine rebounds each. Victoria Barry had eight rebounds off the bench.

But despite Yuma's 40-37 rebounding edge, the Kings had their fourth win over Yuma on the season heading into the regular-season finale against San Luis.

"The girls have been wanting this one for a while," Krepps said. "It was the last night at home for the senior girls, so you might as well leave it on the floor."

Notes: The Kofa bench, despite having no player score more than two points, outscored the Yuma bench 11-3. ... Zamudio had four steals for Yuma, but Kofa finished with a 21-7 edge in steals. ... Kofa committed 13 turnovers through the first three quarters and 10 in the fourth. Yuma had 12 first-half turnovers, 20 in the second.