Henry Buchan is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Camelback High School for AZpreps365.com.

The Betty H. Fairfax Stampede’s defense was true to their name on Friday night, blitzing Camelback’s offense in the backcourt and forcing numerous turnovers throughout their 77-27 road victory. 

Fairfax coach Jennifer Niebling said her team’s success came from combining the team’s ability with continuity.

“We’re really athletic,” Niebling said. “We had mostly the same group last year, and we had that same press last year, so now we’ve got it down.”

Stampede senior Melanie Romero, who finished with five steals, echoed her coach’s words.

“It really was all about our press,” Romero said. “We put a lot of pressure on the ball and surrounded them. We were always ready for the next pass.”

From the opening tip, the Stampede were relentless in their pursuit of the ball. They got off to an 18-4 first quarter advantage, with most of their baskets coming on transition opportunities that stemmed from turnovers.

The Stampede ratcheted up their press throughout the second quarter, double- and triple-teaming ball handlers. The strategy was effective, as the Stampede scored 27 second quarter points to take a 43-13 lead into halftime.

Despite the final score, Camelback coach Bill Guthrie was able to find positives in his team’s performance. The Spartans have a young team this year with just one senior and a heavy dose of freshmen and sophomores.

“What we’re experiencing is a lot of kids coming up from the lower levels who aren’t being taught fundamentals,” Guthrie said. “We’re spending a lot of time on that. How to catch the ball, dribble the ball, rip through, make a pass. It’s a struggle but it’s a long season, and the kids are still working hard.”

Camelback senior Carissa Curley said that one of the points of emphasis will be to continue to develop the team’s strategies to break a full-court press defense.

“They were full-court pressing, so we used our press break,” Curley said. “We want to focus on looking before we just throw the ball just anywhere, to have full-court vision.”

Guthrie said that compared to Wednesday’s 83-4 loss at Chandler, he has already seen a lot of progress in his team’s approach. 

“Our first game, we only scored four points and couldn’t get the ball past half,” Guthrie said. “This time we broke through a couple of times and were able to see a little bit of the light at the end of the tunnel.

"They’re all great kids, just trying to put our arm around them and teach them the great game that we love.”

Fairfax senior Ajana Kenyatta led the way with 22 points, while senior Savannah Helms added 19 for the Stampede. 

Camelback (0-2) will face Basha (1-1) on Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m.

Betty H. Fairfax (2-0) will host North (1-0) on Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m.