Lady Mats hoping to fix struggles

Team is on pace for 1st losing season ever

It’s no secret that the Arizona Western women’s basketball team hasn’t gotten off to the start that it hoped to this season.

With nearly half of the regular season finished, the Matadors (4-10 overall, 2-4 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) are near the bottom of the ACCAC. But with 16 games left on the schedule, they are hoping to make some headway and sneak into the postseason.

Part of the slow start comes with the team’s schedule, losing four games to ranked teams, but even more goes with the inconsistent play that the team has struggled through. The Matadors returned just 14 points per game from a season ago, and the growing pains from that transition have been clear.

“We’re really inexperienced,” said AWC coach Patrick Cunningham, whose team plays at South Mountain today. “We thought we had a similar makeup to our team that we did last year, but looking back we had a lot of experience. We had players that had been around for one or two years. The lack of experience causes you to be very inconsistent.”

Setting goals

After the 2-4 start in league play, winning a title is nearly impossible, but Cunningham is looking to make incremental goals for his team in the final 16 games of the season. The team is looking at the possibility of the first losing season in the program’s 20-year history.

The Matadors are only two games out of second place in the league though, and hoping to just get into the Region I playoffs would change the complexion of the season.

“We’re trying to play to be a region playoff team,” Cunningham said. “I’m telling them that we have 16 games left, it’s a two-game season. It doesn’t matter what you’re record is if you get in. It all goes back to zero.”

There will be an opportunity to make up games with two games against Division I Region I foe, Eastern Arizona (8-6, 4-2) and one more against Central Arizona (7-6, 3-3). AWC also plays Pima and Mesa again, two teams that it beat earlier in the season.

Holiday Tournament

Unlike many junior-college programs, AWC did have some games during the holiday break to stay in a basketball flow.

The Matadors attended the Bruce Fleck Invitational in Tucson from Monday through Wednesday, where they went 1-2. AWC beat Western Texas (74-67), and lost to South Plains (70-51) and Bismark State (93-52).

“If these three games help us win Saturday and in the conference, then mission accomplished,”

Cunningham said. “I like playing in that tournament because it’s non conference and it allows us to get our legs back in the conference.”

Finding another scorer

The Mats have gotten production from freshman forward Mar Ibern (13.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game) and sophomore guard Mone Izumi (9.1 points and 2.8 assists per game), but they have struggled to find a consistent third scorer to go along with those two. The two players account for 40 percent of AWC’s scoring.

“We’re not quite sure where we are going to get scoring from on a nightly basis,” Cunningham said. “The kids are working at it and we’re hopeful to take 16 games and figure out how to get in front of somebody.”

To find that scorer, he thinks his team needs to settle into the game and space the floor better to get some of his players that haven’t been involved into the flow of the game.

“We do need to be more patient offensively,” he said. “Sometimes we try to make plays too soon in possessions and that leads to folks not getting touches. Mone and Mar can score, but if the ball would move a little bit the opportunities would come available for other players.”