No. 8 Mesa ends regular season strong for playoffs

Rene Gomez

The Lady T-Birds basketball team closed out their regular season home schedule with a 57-49 victory over Chandler-Gilbert Community College on Feb. 18 at Heap Gymnasium.

Sophomore guard Mariah Willadsen had a 21 point performance on 9 of 13 shooting and was the only Lady T-Bird in double figures.

“The last couple of games its felt really good; we just need to keep it going,” Willadsen said.

Mesa shot 38.1 percent as a team and 7.1 percent from three-point range.

“We told her to keep shooting, that it’ll fall, and that everything is going to be OK,” sophomore guard Leslie Tademy said.

The Lady T-Birds looked sharp in the first half, especially on defense, but the second half had a 20 minute delay from an injury timeout and slowed their momentum.

Tademy said the team was affected by the lengthy delay a little bit, but it was not enough for them to lose sight of the win.

Mesa did score 17 points off of turnovers to the Coyotes four, and had 30 points in the paint compared to Chandler-Gilbert’s 16.

On Feb. 21, Mesa traveled to Eastern Arizona to pick up their 22nd win in the final game of the regular season by a score of 60-55.

The Lady T-Birds had been very successful winning 13 of their last 15 games going into the postseason.

Willadsen led Mesa with 14 points, sophomore forward Madi Austin had a double double with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Freshman forward Kylie Herd added 10 points from the bench.

The Lady T-Birds finished the regular season with a 22-5 overall record and 18-4 in conference play.

The Lady T-Birds also ended regular season play ranked No. 12 in NJCAA Division II play.

It is also the Lady T-Birds third consecutive ACCAC Division II regular season title.

Peace Amukamara was named All-ACCAC Division II Player of the year and made the All-ACCAC Team.

Austin was selected for the All-ACCAC Region I First Team.

Willadsen was selected for the All-ACCAC Region I Second Team.

Mesa will play their Division II Regional Tournament semi-final game at 7:30 p.m. on March 4 at Heap Gymnasium.  

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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