AWC men come from behind

As long as the basketball kept bouncing around, there was no doubt which team was going to end up with the ball.

More specifically, which two Arizona Western centers were going to get the ball.

Andre Almeida and Rafael Crescencio put the Matador men on their fingertips and the team forged a second-half comeback to beat Glendale 88-79 Wednesday night at The House.

"Our guys gave a great, tough effort. They got key rebounds, loose balls, offensive rebounds and extra possessions, and those are all difference makers," said AWC assistant coach Lance Von Vogt, filling in for Kelly Green as he served a one-game suspension for being ejected from last Saturday's contest."

Crescencio's 23 points and 17 rebounds and Almeida's 14 points and 10 rebounds weren't the only double-doubles for the No. 19 Matadors. Alonzo Brandon had 21 points and 14 rebounds to supplement the conference win.

"We don't always get the rebounds. We as post men just have to play hard," Almeida said. "If we block out 'Zo can get rebounds too."

Facing a similar situation as Saturday's loss to Eastern Utah, AWC trailed by nine points early in the second half. But instead of letting the deficit grow, the Matador men started chipping away.

AWC (13-2, 6-1 ACCAC) settled down getting back to its half-court game, working the ball into Almeida and Crescencio and letting them take care of the scoring. The two combined for 26 points in the second half as the lead slowly flipped sides.

"I don't think there's a player in our conference that can guard them, and having them down there is such an advantage," said Brad Krause, whose sixth 3-pointer of the game gave AWC an 8-point edge with less than 2 minutes to play. " They anchor things down low and we try and run our offense through them."

Forced to play a similar style, Glendale (10-5, 4-3 ACCAC) had to depend on its outside shooting without the help of leading scorer Lance Fite, who picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes to play.

Fite re-entered the game for the final 4:30 of the night with his team down by nine, their largest deficit of the second half. He hit the first of a four 3-pointers as the Gauchos made a late charge, but Glendale's defense did not make any late stops.

Arizona Western's quick-trigger style of play gave them a 9-3 lead to start the game, but after Almeida picked up his second foul the game fed into Glendale's hands. Though the Matadors hit more 3-pointers in the first half (7-6) largely thanks to Krause's four treys, Glendale found itself ahead by a bucket at the break.

"We got into foul trouble with Andre and couldn't get into our normal rotation, and we lost our stride," Von Vogt said. "We slowed it down too much in the first had had to attack. If they were going to send two and three guys at Tommie (Sanders) we were going to get it to our shooters and get it inside."