Aztecs Men's Basketball Rally, Fall Short Against Midland College

The Pima Community College men's basketball team played from behind for much of its game against Midland College (TX) on Tuesday but the Aztecs made it interesting late.

The Aztecs, a Division II team, fell short in their comeback as they lost to Midland College, a Division I team, 90-81 at the West Campus.

The Aztecs trailed 81-77 with just over two minutes left. After a missed layup and a foul on the other end, Midland hit a pair of free throws to go back up six points. The Aztecs missed some shots and turned the ball whereas Midland made their final 7 of 8 free throw attempts to go back up 89-77 with under a minute left.

Down 64-46 early in the second half, the Aztecs went on a 15-4 run to cut the deficit to 68-61. Pima fell behind 73-63 with 8:27 left and went on a 9-2 in the next two minutes that was gapped off by a three-pointer from sophomore Cameron Volk (Tucson Magnet HS) to make it 75-72. That's as close as the Aztecs would get.

Sophomore Justice Martion fell a rebound short of gaining his fifth straight double-double as he finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Yusuf Shehata (Amphitheater HS) also scored 18 points and had two assists. Freshman Justin Bessard scored 13 points and had eight rebounds while fellow freshman Keven Biggs (Cienega HS) also scored 13 points on 6 for 10 shooting. Volk had nine points as he went 6 for 6 from the free-throw line.

The Aztecs get back to ACCAC conference play on Wednesday, Dec. 2 when they travel to Glendale Community College. The game will be at 7:30 p.m.

ML       54       36       90
PCC     42       39       81

Yusuf Shehata/Photo by Vanessa Borboa 2015