Roarin’ Back

Muhammed scores 22, Butts adds 20 in aWC’s 25-point comeback

Matadors 86 Badgers 80 AWC: 1-0 SC: 0-1

“The House” at Arizona Western College is normally crammed with rowdy Matador fans and they would have witnessed a thrilling season opening win over Snow College on Wednesday night.

Trailing by 25 points in the first half, the Matadors never wavered and found themselves going home victorious after beating Snow 86-80.

“Coach (Charles) Harrell was mad, but told us we were fine at the half,” AWC freshman guard Najeeb Muhammad said despite trailing by 19. “He just told us to come out in the second half, play our game and be ourselves.”

The Matadors certainly took Harrell’s message to

sEE

for the Suns to give him 19,004 in his career, making him the 60th player in NBA history to reach 19,000.

Mason Jones made a layup for Houston to start the fourth quarter and cut the lead to five before Ayton took over, scoring eight points during a 10-0 run to make it 99-84 with seven minutes to go. Ayton had two dunks and two blocks in that stretch.

A dunk by Christian Wood soon after that ended a scoring drought of more than five minutes and was the start of a 9-0 run that got Houston within 101-95 with about three minutes left.

A 3-pointer by Gordon cut the lead to 11 early in the third quarter before the Suns scored the next nine points to make it 74-54 with eight minutes left in the quarter.

Gordon ended the run by Phoenix after that with another 3-pointer which was the start of an 8-0 run by Houston that cut the deficit

TIP-INS

Suns: Damian Jones and Dario Saric both sat out for a second straight game and Jalen Smith missed his fifth in a row because of health and safety protocols . ... Jae Crowder had 11 points off the bench.

Rockets: John Wall missed his fourth straight game with a sore left knee and Danuel House (back spasms and self-isolation) sat out for the ninth game

in a row. Coach Stephen Silas said he doesn’t expect either player to return until at least next week . ... Wood had 20 points and 11 rebounds.

UP NEXT

Suns: Host consecutive games against Denver beginning on Friday night as part of a four-game homestand.

Rockets: Begin a twogame trip on Friday at Detroit.

COURTESY OF ARIZONA WESTERN COLLEGE ARIZONA WESTERN’S FRESHMAN GUARD EVAN BUTTS Snow College on Wednesday night inside “The House”. (12) shoots a floater down the middle of the lane in the first half against

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX SUNS GUARD CHRIS PAUL (3) collides with Houston Rockets guard Sterling Brown during the second half of a game on Wednesday in Houston.