Aztecs men's basketball gets stymied by Arizona Western College

The Pima Community College men's basketball team (19-11, 13-9 in ACCAC) struggled from start to finish on Tuesday against Division I team Arizona Western College (24-6, 17-5).

The Aztecs fell behind early and couldn't close the gap as they lost 98-71 to close out the regular season. The Aztecs will be the No. 2 seed for next week's Region I, Division II tournament.

The Aztecs were outscored 21-5 in the first eight minutes of the game and couldn't match the Matadors' energy. They trailed 56-31 at halftime.

The Aztecs cut the Matadors' lead to 18 points in the second half but couldn't get much closer than that.

The Aztecs were out-rebounded 53-35 for the game. They shot 24 percent for the first half and finished at 35.5 percent.

Sophomore Deion James (Empire HS) finished with a team-high 15 points while sophomore Emilio Acedo had 14 points. Freshman Isaiah Murphy (Cienega HS) contributed with 10 points off the bench. Freshman Alize Travis finished nine points and seven assists.

The Aztecs were swept by the Matadors in their meetings this season. Pima lost 101-97 last month in Yuma.

The Aztecs recognized sophomores James, Acedo, Zach Evans (Hamilton HS), Damon Dubots, Dakota Kordsiemon (Catalina Foothills HS) and Jacob Anastasi (Cactus Shadows HS) at halftime.

The Aztecs will host No. 3 seed Glendale Community College next Wednesday, Mar. 8 in the Region I, Division II semifinals. The game will start at 7:30 p.m.

AWC     56     42     98
PCC       31     40     71