T-Birds 2nd-half comeback tops Bears in overtime

Rene Gomez

Men’s T-Bird basketball defeated the Phoenix College Bears 62-55 in overtime for their fifth consecutive win on Jan. 25 at Theo J. Heap Gymnasium.

Mesa also sweeps the regular season series against Phoenix 2-0.

The win puts the T-Bird’s season record at 17-3 overall and 13-1 in conference play.

Mesa regained position atop first place in the conference as well due to an Arizona Western loss recently against Glendale.

Mesa saw a jump from No. 20 to No. 16 in the latest NJCAA rankings as an added bonus to their current winning streak.

The last time these two teams met in Phoenix, the T-Birds blew out the Bears 88-68 on their home court, but Mesa was not going to let Phoenix return the favor.

“We defended our home court today,” sophomore guard Shy McClelland said.

McClelland led all T-Birds with 20 points, and he also grabbed seven rebounds in his 40 minutes.

Sophomore forward Camyn Boone had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Early on the T-Birds struggled offensively, and scored their first points at the 15:04 mark in the first half down 8-2.

Phoenix’s defense was not really what factored into the offensive inefficiency in the first half as Mesa did get open shots.

They just were not falling as the T-Birds shot 6 for 26 (23.1 percent) from the field, and 1 for 12 (8.3 percent) from three point range.

Phoenix was not much better except when it came to getting to the free throw line as they made eight free throws to Mesa’s three in the first half.

Phoenix went into the locker room with a 23-16 advantage at the break.

The second half was a different story as the T-Birds shot a much better 12 for 21 (57.1 percent) from the field, and hit four of their seven three point attempts for 35 points in the half.

McClelland and Boone combined for 20 points in the half with big shot after big shot.

Perhaps no shot was bigger than the three-pointer by sophomore guard Tre Ogles with 2:05 left to give Mesa their first lead of the game.

Sophomore guard Jeffrey Bonner still felt there was more work to do.

“We still had to close that one out,” Bonner said. “We just had to keep going and keep playing.”

Tied at 51, McClelland was called for an offensive foul and Phoenix took over possession with 18 seconds left in the half and what was ultimately the last shot for a win.

Phoenix guard Brandon Brown had an opportunity at the game-winner with a fade away jump shot that was no good as time expired.

Overtime was when Mesa really picked it up as McClelland scored seven points leading the T-Birds to victory.

“We all felt like they got too complacent with the lead,” McClelland said, “from my point of view, I don’t like that and I know our team didn’t like that.”

In the previous meeting, Mesa was outrebounded 43-26 even though they cruised to victory.

The T-Birds closed that rebounding gap 34-30 in favor of Phoenix.

“We just had to rebound as hard as we could, and everybody had to board on defense,” Boone said.

Mesa will host Central Arizona College at Heap Gymnasium on Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

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

Welcome to the Mesa Legend! Subscribe to know more about what goes on at Mesa Community College!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *