AWC women let one slip away at home
AWC battles shooting woes in loss to S. Mountain
When you go as cold as the Arizona Western women’s basketball team did from the field on Wednes- day night at home, it’s going to be hard to win very many close games.
The Matadors (10-16 overall, 8-10 ACCAC) made the game close, but the lid on the basket let the game get away in a 53-51 loss to South Mountain (13-9 overall, 10-8 ACCAC).
AWC shot 32 percent (20of-63) from the field for the game and that was largely brought down by a 20 percent (6-for-20) effort in the first half.
“We were doing a lot of good things, but you just wish the ball would fall for us,” AWC coach Patrick Cunningham said. “Welcome to college basketball. It’s competitive. Sometimes things don’t go your way.”
The two teams started the game at a decent pace with AWC taking an early 9-4 lead after Vinyet Garcia made an elbow three. Back-to-back threes from South Mountain’s Kaylah Burrows tied the game at 13 after one quarter.
In addition to the cold shooting, the Matadors had to battle some foul trouble in the first half with Mar Ibern and Mone Izumi each picking up two fouls before the break.
Even with the foul trouble, the Cougars were loose with the ball and the AWC defense held tough. South Mountain finished the game with 22 turnovers and 18 fewer shot attempts than AWC.
With Ibern and Izumi on the bench for most of the second quarter, the offense went stale and the team only scored four more points in the second quarter. Fortunately for them, the turnovers only led the Cougars to seven points, while the Mats trailed 20-17 at the break.
“Mone and Mar each got two early. Mar scored 28 on them, so they were really paying attention to her,” Cunningham said. “Vinyet (Garcia) didn’t get her shot going or her rhythm down. When it all starts to tumble the wrong way, it seems to build on it.”
Both teams played cleaner basketball in the second half and Harria Mendoza
came out firing for AWC. She scored 12 of her 14 points after halftime and helped keep her team in the game.
Some hustle plays on the defensive end helped the Mats pull up 32-29 at 2:55 in the third, but South Mountain would surge back again.
Burrows gave AWC trouble all-night with her inside-out game. She finished with 24 points and eight rebounds, but she was also four-for-eight from three. A couple of baskets from Burrows put the Cougars up 50-45 in the closing minute of the game.
With 20 seconds left on the clock the Matadors had made the game interesting out of nowhere while trailing 50-45. Mendoza made a
contested elbow-three and she was fouled on the way down.
She completed the fourpoint play a moment later to make the game 50-49.
AWC followed that out up with a quick foul, which gave up two free throws, and then hustled back to score on a lay up by Kayla Rubio. Rubio finished with eight points in the game.
On the final possession, AWC had the ball with 11 seconds left and only trailed 53-51, but the Matadors couldn’t get a clean look that would have won the game.
“Mentally it’s tough on them, but I thought they did a great job hanging in there,” Cunningham said. “We just couldn’t generate anything.”