Prep boys basketball notebook

The annual Southwest Rotary Classic, hosted by Cibola High, tips off Thursday and runs through Saturday.

The 12-team field consists of five local schools - Cibola, Yuma High, Yuma Catholic, Kofa and San Luis. Rounding out the field will be Prescott-Bradshaw Mountain, Lake Havasu, Mesa-Westwood, Avondale-Westview, Tolleson, Moon Valley and Orange High (Orange, Calif.), which is coached by Cibola coach Gary Abercrombie's son and former Yuma High JV coach Craig Abercrombie.

There are eight games slated for the opening day, beginning at 12:30 p.m., with the last game of the night tipping off at 8 p.m.

The 12 teams are placed in four pools of three, with the top two in each advancing to an eight-team championship bracket. Two local teams open against each other, as Yuma High will face Yuma Catholic at 2 p.m.

Check Thursday's edition of The Sun for a tournament preview.

Chasing down a goal

Kofa's Chase Fitchen set a goal before the season to make himself into a guard.

The 6-foot-4 senior primarily played inside and did it well for the Kings last year. This season he's added another dimension to his game -- becoming a deadly perimeter shooter and the Kings' primary ballhandler.

"He was just supposed to be just more of a post player, but with all the hardwork he put in over the summer -- his goal was to become a guard and now he is a guard," Kofa coach Kevin Williamson said. "He's been an early surprise, coming out of his shell and shooting the ball from long range pretty well."

Fitchen has connected on 6 of 11 3-pointers, and is averaging 11.2 points a game, while shooting 50 percent from the field.

Leave it to Biever

Yuma High coach Louie Pisano knew Jacob Biever would put points on the board this season.

The Criminals' deadly outside shooter put up 17 and 20 points in each of his last two games, and ranks second on the team in scoring at a shade under 12 points a contest.

But Pisano said the senior forward's defense has impressed him the most.

"He's always been an offensive guy; he always liked to shoot the ball," Pisano said of Biever. "But now he's really playing hard and working hard on the defensive part of his game — that was always a little bit of his weakness. He's trying to become more of a complete player, and he's doing a really good job for us right now."

Because of Yuma's lack of size, Biever was moved from shooting guard to small forward this year and he's played big, averaging eight rebounds a game the last three contests. He is second on the team in steals.

Ford a force inside

Yuma Catholic's roster is made up entirely of players who are about the same size -- nine of its 10 players are 6 foot or taller.

But junior Roderick Ford stands the tallest at 6-foot-3.

The Shamrocks needed Ford to step up and become a physical, inside presence this year, rather than utilize his athletic ability on the perimeter as in years past. And Ford has embraced his role as YC's only inside presence.

He's averaging a double-double at 13.6 points a game and 10.6 rebounds a game, and has improved his elbow jumper and post moves.

"Since we're not a very big team we rely on him a lot in the middle, and he's been up to the challenge," YC coach Brooks Neumann said. "He's embraced it. He's playing pretty good defense and is just doing a great job for us."