2024-25 Girls Basketball

Cazares breaks sister’s record at Pueblo, could challenge to be highest scorer in state history

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Victor Cazares Lozoya has made a tremendous impact on his daughters Victora (left) and America on the basketball court and in life (Javier Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

Southern Arizona has produced the top scorers in girls high school basketball in the state’s history with the top two — Julie Brase of Catalina Foothills and Alyssa Brown of Sahuaro — and four of the top 10.

Pueblo junior America Cazares can be right there with Brase, Brown, Tucson’s Alexis Cortez and Green Fields’ Olivia Snyder if she continues her scoring pace.

Cazares has the most career points (1,859) of any active player in the state after breaking her sister Victoria’s Pueblo record of 1,839 on Friday night in the 72-41 win over visiting Flowing Wells.

“I feel like I worked hard for it,” America said when asked about breaking the school record in only three years. “I felt proud of myself.”

She has two regular-season games remaining as well as six to eight playoff games depending on how the Warriors fare in the Open Division and possibly the 5A state playoffs.

America may eclipse 2,000 career points before her senior season.

ARIZONA GIRLS BASKETBALL CAREER SCORING LEADERS

SOURCE: AIA

America’s current career scoring rate is 23.5 points a game in the 79 games she has played. If she continues at that pace, she will end her career with approximately 2,800 points.

If she continues her present scoring clip of 28.2 points a game (which leads the state) over what should be about 40 remaining games in her high school career, she will finish with close to 3,000 points.

She wants to become the state’s first 3,000-point scorer. Brase, Lute Olson’s granddaughter, holds the record of 2,913 points from 1994 to 1998.

“If she gets to 2,000 this year, 3,000 is attainable — it’s right there,” Pueblo coach Izzy Galindo said. “If she hits all of her free throws, (does) not (try) sideways layups, and gets to the basket, she can definitely hit 3,000. That would be an amazing feat.”

Brown, now a senior at UNLV, was well on pace to reach 3,000 career points in 2020-21 but COVID-19 limited Sahuaro to only 19 games. She finished with 2,680 points.

Cortez finished with 2,479 points at Tucson High from 2012 to 2016 and Snyder had 2,382 points at Green Fields from 2009 to 2013.

Southern Arizona may produce another potential 3,000-point scorer in a career — Rincon/University sophomore guard Leila O’Dowd, who is already at 1,482 points.

BASKETBALL IS IN THE GENES

The Cazares family was all in attendance Friday for the special occasion of America breaking Victoria’s record at Pueblo.

The basketball background of their father Victor Cazares Lozoya and growing up around the sport paved the way for the legendary status at Pueblo for Victoria and America.

Lozoya played at the college level at Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, and raised his four daughters in the sport by having them play year-round with clubs.

Odalis played at Tucson High and Getsemani was the first of the Cazares family to play for Galindo at Pueblo.

“I am really happy for them,” Lozoya said of his daughters in Spanish through the translation by Victoria. “They’ve worked hard for it. They deserve it. I am very proud of them.”

Lozoya’s practice regimen with his daughters while they grew up included ball-handling and shooting.

America is a pure shooter with a sound, fundamental shooting stroke. She is listed at 5-foot-7 but seems taller with her long arms, which allows her to shoot over guards on the perimeter.

She started playing with Galindo’s club team Dizzy Squad since she was in the second grade nine years ago.

“America went on to bigger (club) teams that go further (nationally),” Galindo said of America being with AZ Supreme. “She plays on the East coast and stuff like that but she plays with us off and on.

“Anything we can do, I tell them as a team, individual or team-wise, not only our team, the school, the community, we’re on the southside of town, bad reputation … anything we can do here to uplift the whole community, I’m all for it that they can break the record.”

AMERICA CONTINUES DEVELOPMENT TO ALL-AROUND TALENT

Galindo mentioned that Victoria is “by far” one of his favorite players to come through Pueblo. He has yet to comment similarly of America, mostly because her career is not yet complete.

He lauds Victoria’s “work ethic” as making her a special player and that he wants America to develop similar characteristics.

Victoria’s determination to succeed has extended to her post-basketball career (Class of 2023 at Pueblo) as she has already formed her own business after attending beauty school to be an esthetician.

Victoria stated about America’s goal to reach 3,000 career points: “I know she can do it if she stays on it and keeps practicing and takes it serious, I’m pretty sure she can do it.”

Being an upper classmen now and approaching her senior year, America will have to take on the challenge of being a leader for the Warriors, who are one of the top programs in the state.

Pueblo (21-3 overall, 7-1 in the 5A Southern) ranks No. 13 in the Open Division and No. 3 among 5A schools.

America has talent around her, including Galindo’s daughter Sara Galindo, a quiet and sincere leader as a senior averaging 15.2 points, 3.1 assists and 3.0 steals per game.

Sophomore forward Brooklyn Espinoza is on pace for more than 1,000 rebounds in her career with 513 presently.

This is a team with inside-outside capabilities to keep defenses off-balance. If teams place too much attention on America, Sara Galindo, Espinoza, sophomore guard Asia Clark (5.2 rebounds and 5.1 steals per game) and others are quality players who can provide support.

Pueblo is two seasons removed from reaching the 4A state championship game when Victoria was senior. The Warriors can certainly go that far again in America’s last two years.

When asked what it will take to earn a state title, America said after scoring 24 points in the win over Flowing Wells: “Just playing as a team as we did today, keep communicating and doing what we do best.”

Pueblo and Nogales are tied atop the region with 7-1 records.

The Warriors end the regular season at Nogales on Thursday after playing at Cienega on Tuesday.

Izzy Galindo’s team is 2-0 against the Apaches this season, including a 41-26 win at home in a region game Jan. 29.

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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