Coming into her own
Junior PG Arlyssa Underwood enjoyed a breakout year for YUHSD champ Cibola
It’s very easy to quantify just how much the Cibola girls basketball team improved this past season.
A year ago, the Raiders went 7-11 in AIA games, 7-3 against local opponents and didn’t make the postseason; this year, they went 14-5, 10-0 and did. Last year, they lost by 40 points to Desert Ridge and by 24 to Westview; this year, they beat both.
How was such drastic improvement possible?
Because players like junior point guard Arlyssa Underwood raised their game to a completely different level.
A year after averaging 7.9 points and little else as a sophomore starter, Underwood — the 2017-18 Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Girls Basketball Player of the Year — came into her own this winter to the tune of 11.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.0 steals per game.
She was the area’s leading scorer and also ranked first locally in assists, third in steals and — despite her listed height of 5-foot-4 — top-10 in rebounding. “That girl is a baller,” Cibola coach Anthony Gerg said. “She was just all over the court.”
A year ago, Underwood earned a starting role — which she said came as a surprise to her — but mostly played off the ball, as the Raiders had a senior point guard in Emilee Easley. Underwood, who played on the freshman team the year before, admitted she was a little “scared” at first at the varsity level, but still showed flashes of potential.
“Last year about halfway through you could see her comfort level starting to increase, so we knew she had the potential to break out this year,” Gerg said. “This year, she just had complete confidence and that really made her blossom.”