(Tucson, AZ) The Pima Community College men’s basketball team (31-0) opened the 2024-25 winter playoff season on Wednesday as it hosted South Mountain Community College (12-19) in the Region I, Division II Semifinals at the West Campus Aztec Gymnasium.
The No. 1 seeded Aztecs used a pair of runs in the second half to pull away as they beat the No. 4 seeded Cougars 80-55 to advance to their third straight Region I, Division II Finals game.
The Aztecs started off the second half with a 13-4 run that was capped off by freshman Isaac Johnson’s three-pointer to make it 49-32. With the score at 55-36, the Cougars cut into Pima’s lead with an 8-2 run to put it at 57-44 with about 10 minutes left.
The Aztecs countered with an 11-1 run in two and a half minutes to take a 68-45 advantage with 7:30remaining. The Aztecs maintained their 20-plus lead to close out the game.
The first half saw three ties and seven lead changes as the Cougars hit six of their first 10 shots and took a 19-12 lead. The Aztecs produced a 10-2 run to take the lead at 22-21and would trail one more time in the game. They outscored South Mountain 14-4 in the final minutes to go up 36-28 at the break.
“Coming into the Region playoffs, every team wants to play hard and win. We got to take it one step at a time,” sophomore forward/center Gabe Oldham said. “It’s easy to look ahead, but we got to take it one game at a time. Tonight, we definitely had a wake-up call that we got caught up looking ahead and we got focus on ‘the now.’ Our biggest thing was we lacked our defensive intensity, so being able to not let guys go to where they want to go on offense, curls and down screens stuff like that, being able to push them out, forcing them towards half court and force them away from the basket and not inside, that’s what we talked about at halftime. Also, limiting their shots and making them tougher.”
Sophomore Cohenj Gonzales (Mesquite HS) finished with a game-high 18 points to go with five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Johnson scored 17 points off the bench as he went 8 for 9 from the field.
Sophomore Wes Ball (Marana HS) scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds while fellow sophomore Kota Benson (Mesa HS) added 10 points, five assists and three rebounds.
Oldham contributed with nine points, 12 rebounds, five assists and one block as he went 4 for 5 from the field.
Sophomore Max Majerle (Arcadia HS) had six points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Oldham emphasized on the importance of Johnson’s impact on the game.
“That’s what we needed. All the starters on any given night can play well, but a true winning team comes down to the bench. Being able to see Isaac hit that big time corner three in the second half, that really set us on fire after that. That’s just huge and it makes me really excited looking forward to Friday.”
The Aztecs will host No. 2 Chandler-Gilbert Community College in the Region I, Division II Finals on Friday at the West Campus Aztec Gymnasium. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m.
“The biggest thing is we’re going to come out extremely hard on defense. We’re going to be pushing them out of their spots and we’re not going to let them reverse the ball as easily,” Oldham said. “If a guy cuts to the paint, best believe he’s going to catch a shoulder. I just think that’s our biggest emphasis. (On offense) like always, just race to 100 and push the ball up the floor.”
Press Release courtesy of Pima Aztec Athletics – Raymond Suarez
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