Canyon girls basketball is tackling its way to toughness and overcoming inexperience

NEWHALL — Canyon girls basketball coach Jessica Haayer places a basketball on the ground between two players. For the next 30 seconds, their task is to keep the opponent from getting the ball. And there are few rules.

“There’s pushing, shoving, throwing,” Haayer said. “In the past couple of weeks, I’ve just been making them tackle each other.”

The Cowboys had a defensive wake-up call when they lost to Valencia 75-49 in early January. Since then, Haayer has ramped up the intensity at practices with pleasing results.

Tuesday night, one week after getting crushed by Valencia, Canyon had league-leading Hart on the ropes in the fourth quarter.

The Cowboys had successfully disrupted the smooth passing and shooting that the Hawks began the game with and lost 45-38, but held them to their lowest point total in six Foothill League games.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, how big, how tall, how strong,” Canyon freshman point guard Darby Dunn said. “It’s all the mindset.”

No Canyon starters from last season’s team returned for this year, which left Dunn to become the core of a team that is rapidly gaining experience.

She grew up competing in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing and was coached by her dad, who owns Premier Martial Arts in Canyon Country. Basketball is a contact sport, according to her.

“I’ll get hit a couple times and it’s fine because I kind of just grew up around it,” Dunn said. “Even if you get hit a couple times, just get up and keep playing because you can keep playing. It’s a mindset thing. I fall and I just get up and I’m like, I can do it, I can do it. It’s just one hit.”

Dunn was tasked with guarding 5-foot-11 guard and Long Beach State commit Morgan Mack on Tuesday night. Sophomore Brooke Phillips jumped in to help out when it was needed.

“She always wants to guard the best person,” Haayer said of Dunn. “She’s my kid that will give it her all. So I said, go ahead, guard her. Let’s see what you can do.”

The spotlight isn’t always directly on Dunn, though. The point guard broke the school record for assists in a game when she recorded 16 against Castaic on Friday and she continued to facilitate plays against the Hawks (15-5, 6-0).

She passed to Shannen Wilson for a layup that brought the score to 38-31 in Hart’s favor with 4:45 remaining in the game and made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the game.

The moments offered glimpses of what could come while also being a product of the aggression that Haayer has tried to instill in her players since summer.

She put together a scout team of boys to practice against her team. David Dunn, Darby’s father, is a fifth degree black belt and offered some cross-training to the Canyon basketball team.

“A lot of it is right-to-left shuffling and a lot of it is on command,” Haayer said. “At the snap, you turn. A lot of it is basketball. Change of direction, change of movement type of activities.”

The Cowboys (10-11, 4-2) will get another shot against Hart in their league finale on Feb. 5. And the grueling training won’t let up as Canyon continues to look to the future.

“We’re going to be scary next year,” Haayer said.