Rincon/University moved to 5-1 on the year after holding on to beat Cienega 49-39 on the road Monday night. The Rangers entered the night ranked No. 10 in the 6A Conference and this is the best start for the program in 11 years.

That 2009-2010 squad started the season out 8-1 and finished with an 18-8 record to go along with a No. 5 ranking but that was followed up by a few years of downplay including a 1-36 mark from 2011 to 2013. Current head coach Darryl Carlson (70-47) took over in 2016 he slowly built the program back to where it once was and the team ended last year with a No. 12 ranking in the 5A Conference. The new conference configuration has the Rangers back in 6A along with fellow Southern Arizona team, Tucson High.

Leading the way this year are a trio of seniors in Maddie Greene (17.7 points per game), Sonia Almana (13.6) and Edie Cotton (12.4). Greene was not available for the game against Cienega but she and Cotton are both closing in on 1,000 career points.

Cotton scored a game-high 17 points at Cienega including three 3’s with her first make putting the Rangers up 14-6 in the closing seconds of the first quarter. Cotton made another long-range shot to open up the second quarter and Rincon/UHS went into the half up 27-12.

Cotton made her third 3 to open up the fourth quarter and Kendall Jeong added another and the Rangers opened up their biggest lead of the night at 44-24 with 5:45 left but the Bobcats ended the game on a 15-5 run for the 49-39 final margin. Jeong finished with 15 points to go along with Cotton’s 17 and Almana added 11. Chloe Larson led Cienega with 11, Vanessa Kelley had 10 and Ariyanna Sorensen added 8.

The Rangers are led by a group of outstanding seniors but Cienega (1-4) is a much younger team under the guidance of head coach Renaldo Wright and the team will have another difficult opponent Tuesday night with a trip to Sahuaro (4-0) scheduled. The Rangers are slated to host Desert View (1-2) on Wednesday with a big match at Tucson (4-3) slated for Friday night.

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