Matador women hit timely 3s, beat Yavapai in double OT

The players may have changed, but the Arizona Western-Yavapai women's basketball rivalry is still alive and well.
 
AWC erased an eight-point deficit in the final 49 seconds of regulation to force overtime and held Yavapai to one field goal in double overtime to pull off an 88-85 win Wednesday night at The House in its conference schedule.
 
"Bless Yavapai's heart. They deserved to win the basketball game and they were better prepared," AWC coach Patrick Cunningham said. "We just had more players than they did."
 
AWC point guard Amanda Rawlings forged the Matador comeback with 19 points off the bench - 14 in the second half - and Tanisha Manson had a game-high 24 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks inside to give AWC (5-1, 1-0 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) its fourth straight win.
 
Yavapai (1-5, 0-1 ACCAC), down four players for final nine minutes of the game, lost starting center Kira DeMorales with 2:29 to play in overtime to fouls and leading scorer Lerrin Cook early in double overtime to the same problem.
 
Julianne Forte kept the Roughriders alive in the extra sessions with half of their 18 points and finished with a team-high 21, but couldn't pull her team out of a seven-point hole in the end.
 
Only able to manage three 3-pointers and little else from the outside until the final minute, AWC hit a trio of 3-pointers to tie the game, and Tyrisha Blake and Charde Mayne knocked down treys in double overtime to keep their team on top.
 
"Charde doesn't have a high percentage with 3s, but she had to knock one down when it counted," Cunningham said. "Amanda hit some big ones. Sometimes it's better to be lucky, and that kept us alive, and as long as you're alive and the clock is ticking you got a chance."
 
The Roughriders withheld a strong and physical Matador push for most of the second half with open shots and free throw shooting. AWC cut its deficit down to single digits and made a mini 5-0 run to get within five with a Melissa Bennett putback and transition 3-pointer from Rawlings, but Yavapai never let the lead slip away until Rawlings' trey with 11 seconds to play.
 
"Our guys did a good job of hanging in there in the second half," Cunningham said. "We did some things on the fly, cut the turnovers down and got the ball to TJ, and we just wore them down in the last five minutes."
 
Yavapai led 39-27 at the break, crisply executing its offense and converting 11 AWC turnovers into 14 points. The Matadors kept stride with Manson on the floor, who nearly had a double-double in the opening 20 minutes, but the Roughriders bumped their lead into double digits while she rested with a 13-3 run.
 
Four Yavapai players finished in double figures, but Forte was the only one to avoid fouling out. The Roughriders made 31 of their 44 free throw attempts and were 10 of 16 in the overtime periods.

"They spread the floor the attacked the basket. We just weren't playing good defense," Cunningham said. "I told our guys their goal is to shoot 40 free throws, so they did a good job of getting to the line because they couldn't match up inside."
 
Blake had 15 points, seven rebounds and five steals for AWC, and Natalia da Costa added 11 points and six rebounds in the win.