AWC men ready for season’s 2nd half
Mats enter 2019 at 10-4 overall
With nearly half of the regular season in the rear view mirror, the Arizona Western men’s basketball team is trying to make the most of a long break during the holidays.
The midseason hiatus could work either way for the AWC. The break could help the team rest up and surge into the second half of the season, or it could get everyone out of sync at the wrong time.
The Matadors were away from basketball for 17 days with most of the players going home for the holidays, but they resumed practice on Tuesday. AWC’s last game was on Dec. 14 — an 81-78 win over Utah State Eastern — and the first game back will be Saturday at South Mountain.
“I think it’s good for them to have the time off,” AWC coach Charles Harral said. “We played a lot of games, after finals and we did a ton of traveling in the first semester. It’s going to be nice to get another road game out of the way Saturday and be at home quite a bit in the month of January.”
The Matadors still have 16 regular-season games on the schedule and a chance of winning an Arizona Community College Athletic Conference championship as they sit at 10-4 overall and 4-2 in the league. AWC trails Phoenix College (113, 5-1) by one game and is tied for first among Division I teams with Cochise (10-4, 4-2), but the Apaches own the tiebreaker after winning the first head-to-head matchup.
Where to improve
Even with the solid start to the season, the losses have all come with a similar theme. The Mats win when they shoot the ball well from deep, and they lose when they go through a cold shooting night.
In the four losses AWC has shot 26 percent from deep, while the rest of the offense struggles to find a flow. The team is marginally better on the season by shooting 31 percent.
“I’m pleased with where we are at except for our shooting,” Harral said. “We’ve had a few games where our defense has not been necessarily outstanding, but it has been good enough to win where we just haven’t made enough shots. I hope we can get to the point with our perimeter shooting.”
A big part of that comes from a shooting slump from the team’s best shooter, Alfonso Plummer. The sopho-