Medford leads AWC to victory
With both teams struggling to take control, Lester Medford took matters into his own hands. And even video replay confirmed just how hot he was.
The Arizona Western guard scored 10 of the Matadors' final 16 points of the first half against Phoenix and finished with 23 points — one of which came on a controversial replay-assisted call — in AWC's 75-53 win on Saturday at the House.
Neither team could score more than three straight points until AWC kicked off a 14-3 run with 6:32 left. Medford had two 3-pointers in that stretch and finished 5-for-8 from long range.
“We just stayed together and played as a team,” Medford said. ”We just kept moving the ball and knocking down shots. My teammates were just getting me the ball, and I was moving it to them so they could get wide open shots.”
The Matadors (20-5 overall, 11-4 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) used a 15-4 run in the second half to put the Bears (17-8, 9-6) away. The win moved the Matadors to within a half-game of Cochise for the lead in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NJCAA Region I Division I tournament. And a big part of that was Medford's performance, which also included eight rebounds and four assists.
“He's a really good player. He's the best guard in this conference,” AWC coach Charles Harral said. “There's lots of talented guards in the conference, but in my opinion he's the best. But he still needs to make better decisions at the end of the game when we're ahead.”
Medford closed the first half on the free-throw line. He made one of his two shots as time expired. However, Harral argued with the refs that Medford was actually taking a 3-point shot when he was fouled. The refs checked the video replay provided courtside by AWC TV Ch. 74, which showed decidedly Medford was shooting a three. He hit his bonus free throw after the court was cleared for halftime.
Harral said he had not discussed using replay before and thought of it as the play unfolded.
“I'm glad we got to do it,” Harral said. “It was nice we had it and nice we got the extra point out of it.”
Renan Lenz had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Marvin Whitt and Aaseen Dixon each had 11 points for the Matadors.
The win concluded a perfect day for Matador athletics — the baseball team won two games, the softball won twice, and the women's basketball team beat the Bears earlier in the evening.
The night ended with the crowd cheering at failed attempt at a showy dunk by PC's Kenneth Willis, who had stolen the ball from Yashiro Yukijio and headed for his bucket by himself. He lobbed the ball off the glass and tried to jam it through one-handed, but the 6-foot-1 Willis couldn't elevate enough to finish the dunk.
