Late comeback proves too much for Eastern
Latasha Newburn
paring for the playoffs they looked to defeat Arizona Western, the No. 1 team in the Arizona Community College Athletic ConferenceThe teams went basket for basket, alternating the lead throughout the first twenty minutes of the game, but it was the T-birds who left the court with a two point lead making the score 44-42 at the half.
“The game came down to who would execute best offensively down the stretch,” head coach Sam Ballard said.
Both teams struggled offensively in the second half. The T-birds averaged 38.5 percent on field goals made, while the Matadors finished the game shooting 55.6 percent in the 81-70 Arizona Western win.
Connor Isley who ended the game with 15 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds and Clint Hamilton had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Thunderbirds landed themselves seeded third in the Region I Division I playoffs at home against the fourth ranked Eastern Arizona Gila Monsters.
The players on both sides complained the officiating was making some calls too strict while others were not called.
In the final few minutes of the game, Mesa began playing the foul game, hoping that Eastern would miss their foul shots and Mesa could regain possession of the ball in order to catch up to Eastern’s eight point lead.
Mesa’s gamble paid off. In the final seconds of the game, sophomore Josh Deanne drove the ball into the lane and was able to draw a hard foul that sent him crashing to the floor, but still made the lay-up to put Mesa ahead by one point.
Finishing off the game with a free throw, Mesa left 3.3 seconds on the clock for Eastern Arizona.
Mesa closed the game out with a final score of 90-88.
With that, Mesa advanced to play Cochise on the Apache home court on March 5 to play for the right to continue for one more game.
