Thunderbird basketball loses to Arizona Western

Ben Garcia

The T-bird men’s basketball team had the opportunity to knock off what MCC head coach Sam Ballard said was “a pretty good team,” but as the second half came to a close, the T-birds found themselves fighting to keep the loss within double digits as they all but checked out of the game with four minutes left to play.

Despite some sloppy play by the T-birds, their three-point shooting kept them alive in the first half. At halftime, the T-birds trailed by one, and coach Ballard said that to win his team needed to take care of the ball better and rebound.

After scoring 35 points in the first half, the T-birds only managed 23 second-half points, falling 70-58 to the Arizona Western Matadors.

The T-birds are now 4-3 on the season, and the Matadors improved to 8-1.

The T-birds helped the Matadors by putting them on the line for 19 second-half free throws chances, while the T-birds only took nine free throws the whole game.

“We got the ball in the hands of our guards and they just made good plays,” Matadors head coach Patrick Cunningham said about his team’s win.

“We played hard and Mesa played hard. We just made more shots than they did tonight,” Cunningham said.

Elliot Fletcher led the T-birds in scoring with 13 points, shooting 5-6 from the field with one free throw.

 

  • Mesa Legend Staff

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

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