The Pima College men’s basketball team battled through a competitive game with the Chandler-Gilbert Coyotes, beating them 85-75 on Wednesday night at the West Gym.
Free throws proved clutch for the Aztecs (16-8), as they nailed their final six shots from the line to escape with their fourth straight win.
“I was really pleased. We score an average of 115 points a game (in their last three games) and tonight we got 85,” Pima coach Brian Peabody said. “It was not pretty. We grinded it out. It was ugly, but I’ll take it.”
Pima had a 79-75 lead with under two minutes to play in the game whenforward Traivar Jackson was fouled. He hit both free throws to put the Aztecs up 81-75 with 1:30 remaining.
Forward Daniel Moody (Walden Grove graduate) was then fouled on a defensive rebound and was sent to the line. Moody drained both of his shots to widen the lead to 83-75.
The Coyotes missed their final attempted shot and Jackson came down with the rebound. Crishon Dixon came up with the ball after it was stripped and was fouled. He hit his final two free throws to secure the Aztecs’ win.
Leading the team in scoring was Jackson, who had a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Jackson was also a perfect 5 for 5 from the free-throw line and shot 61.5 percent from the field.
“We were just matching their physicality and at the second half, we started to bring it to ’em,” Jackson said. “They started to push back, but they really couldn’t do anything. I thought we did a great job today.”
Both teams exchanged shots in the first 10 minutes minutes of the first half. Pima began to pull away after Jalen Johnson drained a 3-point shot to put the Aztecs up 14-13.
Johnson then scored an alley-oop and hit another field goal to put Pima up 18-14. Jackson made one more layup to increase the lead to 20-14 before the Coyotes called a timeout with 10:53 to go in the half.
Both teams once again took turns making shots.
Chandler-Gilbert cut their deficit to three points with under a minute to play, but Pima took 42-39 lead into halftime.
After Chandler-Gilbert made its first basket of the second half, Pima went on 16-7 run, boosting its lead to 63-48 with 11:33 left in the game.
The Coyotes came storming back with their own 16-4 run, tightening Pima’s lead to 67-64 with six minutes remaining.
Four other players scored in double figures for the Aztecs.
Moody had 18 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and one steal. Johnson had 17 points and eight rebounds.
Dixon had 11 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Iturry Kitt had 11 points, three rebounds and two assists.
The Aztecs next game will be Saturday at 4 p.m. at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix. Their next game at the West Gym will be Wednesday, when they will play Mesa Community College.
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Nathaniel Martinez is an aspiring sports journalist who is a Sahuaro High School graduate and Pima Community College student. He has written for the Aztec Press at Pima. While at Sahuaro, he played football for longtime coach Scott McKee and he wrestled for the Cougars.
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