AWC beats Central, advances to region finals
The Arizona Western men’s basketball team is one win away from claiming its first region title since 2012, and it will get to play that game on its home court.
The Matadors, the No. 1 seed in the four-team NJCAA Division I Region I playoffs, took care of business Saturday night at home in the semifinals, pulling away from No. 4 Central Arizona late for an 85-67 victory.
AWC (25-6 overall), which will host either No. 2 Cochise or No. 3 Mesa on Monday (Saturday night’s other semifinal result was not available as of press time), led by just one at the half Saturday and fell behind a few minutes into the second half, but ended up closing the game’s final eight minutes out on a 28-12 run for the comfortable vic- tory.
“I thought our defense at the end of the game was really good, and we got out in transition,” AWC coach Charles Harral said. “Dajuan (Beard) kind of started the run, and I thought my point guards played much better in the second half. Dajuan and Brandon (McGhee) got the ball moving, Torin (Webb) was taking better shots, it was a good deal.”
Webb, the Matadors leading scorer on the season at 15.1 points per game, finished with a team-high 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting.
The other three most- used members of the backcourt — Daryl Adams (13 points, 3 steals), McGhee (9 points, 4 assists) and Beard (9 points, 3 assists) — combined for 31 points and perhaps most impressively just three turnovers between the three of them.
Andre Jones, who on Thursday was named the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year, chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds, while forward/center Robert Jones (11 points, 10 rebounds) notched a double-double. Lamont Traylor added 11 points, giving the Matadors six players with nine points or more.
Five of those six — all but Webb, a Second-Team All-ACCAC selection — are freshmen, which Harral said possibly contributed to the Matadors’ somewhat slow start.
“I thought they were nervous early,” Harral said. “We have a lot of freshmen, first playoff game, but I think we kind of got that out of the way. And then as we kind of pulled away, we created turnovers and made easy baskets, which is kind of what we have to do to win games.”