Matador men, women pick up key wins over Cochise
Marvin Whitt led the charge for the Arizona Western men's basketball team and the Matadors got a key 66-61 win over No. 21 Cochise in Douglas on Wednesday.
Whitt scored 26 points with four 3-pointers for the No. 24 Matadors, who improved to 22-5 overall and 17-2 in Arizona Community College Athletic Conference and moved into sole possession of second place in Division I.
“The difference in the game was Marvin,” Matador coach Charles Harral said. “And Carlos (Perez) had some good minutes down the stretch as well.”
Perez finished with 15 points.
With the loss, Cochise drops to 23-4 overall at 16-3 in ACCAC with the two-seed hosting the third-place team in a Division I Region I semifinal.
The Matadors play at home against Phoenix, which is No. 20 in Division II, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The House.
JUCO WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Matadors win a big one
The first time the Arizona Western women's basketball team played Cochise, it gave the Matadors their worst home loss since 2009.
The Matadors got some satisfying revenge by beating the Apaches 63-56 in Douglas on Wednesday in a game that could have a big impact in seeding for the Division I Region I playoffs.
Arizona Western (21-6 overall, 13-4 in Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) got a monster game from Samantha Wallace, who scored a team-high 27 points in the win. Sophomore Lisette Longomo added 14 points for the Matadors.
“Obviously, that's an excellent win for us, considering how bad we looked against them the first time around,” Matador coach Patrick Cunningham said.
In the first meeting of the year, the Apaches crushed the Matadors 69-38 at The House.
It was a game of runs on Wednesday, with Arizona Western using a 24-3 run that spanned over the two halves to take a double-digit lead. Cochise responded with a 19-4 run of its own to retake the lead but after the Matadors went up 58-56, they never trailed the rest of the way.
The win puts the Matadors a game behind the second-place Apaches, who still have to play first-place Central Arizona. The second-place team hosts the third-place in the Division I Region I Semifinal.
“That really puts us in a good position and we just need to stay focused for the final three (regular season) games,” Cunningham said.
