Men’s T-Birds basketball had an 11 game winning streak snapped by the Arizona Western Vaqueros in a
Rene Gomez
Men’s T-Birds basketball had an 11 game winning streak snapped by the Arizona Western Vaqueros in a very physical 75-74 loss on Jan. 8 at Theo J. Heap Gymnasium.
The game was between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the conference and both teams were evenly matched.
“We lost to them in the first round of the playoffs so we really wanted to get after them,” said sophomore guard Jeffrey Bonner.
The T-Birds overall record sits at 12-3 (8-1 in conference) and Mesa is now 6-2 at home heading into the second half of the season.
Sophomore guard Shy McClelland led all scorers with 22 points on 8 of 12 shooting, and 14 of those points came in the second half.
McClelland also added seven rebounds and four assists in his 40 minutes.
Sophomore forward Camyn Boone was very productive scoring 16 points on 4 of 8 shooting (8 of 11 on free throws), and hauled in a team-leading eight rebounds in 35 minutes.
Going into the game, the T-Birds were ranked No. 1 in the conference in field goal percentage (.496) and three-point percentage (.417) while owning the second best opponents field goal percentage allowed (.396) and best three-point percentage allowed (.287) in the conference.
This was not their better shooting performance from three going 5 of 16 (.312). Arizona Western was efficient making 25 of 60 (.417) from the field and 13 of 30 (.433) from beyond the three-point line.
Neither team had a significant rebounding advantage (32-31 in favor of Arizona Western) or forced the other to commit too many turnovers (12 for Mesa compared to 13 by Arizona Western).
One advantage that stood out was the 23 bench points for the Vaqueros, compared to the T-Birds’ two points off of the bench.
In the first half, the Vaqueros established themselves by controlling the tempo and built a 13-6 lead when Bonner suffered a minor ankle injury, returning later.
Arizona Western then capped off a 10-2 scoring run making it 18-8 with 12:31 left in the first half.
After some scoring runs of their own, the T-Birds tied the score at 26.
Both teams traded baskets, but Mesa went into the locker room with a 37-34 lead in a half led by McClelland and fellow sophomore guard Sami Bzai who combined for 16 points.
The T-Birds were shooting well from three-point range in the first half going 4 of 10 (.400), but Arizona Western was not far behind.
The second half was more of the same for both teams as the Vaqueros went on a 13-2 scoring run to go up 47-39.
Frustration seemed to fester and McClelland was whistled for a technical foul for arguing on a play where there was plenty of contact on a drive to the basket but there was no call by the officials.
Shortly after that, a similar play took place with McClelland driving to the basket once again, and he was bumped by a defender, but this time the officials called a foul.
Mesa then went on an 11-0 run afterwards to take a 53-51 lead.
Several lead changes occurred afterwards, but approaching the final 1:05 in the second half, McClelland put a Vaquero on the free throw line and Arizona Western closed the gap to 71-70 with Mesa still leading.
Arizona Western took the lead for good when guard Ali Faruqby hit his third three-point shot to make it 73-71 with 29 seconds left.
Mesa took a timeout to draw up a play and it was Bzai who took the three-point attempt for the lead, but missed.
“We were trying to get a high percentage shot, but Sami was the main option so we were looking for him because he is our best three-point shooter,” said sophomore guard Tre Ogles.
After two successful free throws by the Vaqueros, McClelland made a three-pointer as time expired with a final score of 75-74.
“We knew they had shooters and we just let them get a few too many looks, and they got hot,” Ogles said.
The T-Birds three-point shots were not falling in the second half as they went 1 of 6 (.167) from long distance.
“We just didn’t shoot very well and execute as well as we needed to,” Bonner said.
The next home game for Mesa is against the Phoenix Bears at 4 p.m. on Jan. 25 at Theo J. Heap Gymnasium.
