The No. 9 Pima Community College men’s basketball season came to an end Friday at the NJCAA Division II National Tournament at Danville, Ill., with an 80-70 loss to No. 10 St. Clair (Mich).
·The Aztecs end their season 29-6 after the loss to St. Clair in the seventh-place consolation bracket semifinals.
Sophomore Dillan Baker (Salpointe Catholic) led the Aztecs with 17 points as he finished 6 for 19 from the field. He also grabbed four rebounds. He will play the last two years of his college career at NAU.
Pima took a 61-51 lead with 9:54 left in the game after freshman Gabe Oldham made a pair of free throws.
The Skippers went on a 16-3 run in almost five minutes to take the lead at 67-64 with 5:09 remaining.
Freshman Cohenj Gonzales ended the run with a jumper, but the Skippers came back with a three-pointer. The Aztecs did not have a field goal in the final 4:56 of the game as they went 6 for 8 from the foul line.
The Aztecs trailed 23-22 with 8:19 left in the first half but went on an 8-0 run in three minutes to take a 30-23 advantage.
Pima led 40-33 at the break.
Gonzales drew three fouls in the first 4:30, but sophomores Yahir Garcia (Tucson) picked up the slack.
Garcia went 2 for 4 from 3-point range to finish with six points. Moses Demalek scored five straight points at the halfway point of the first half to tie the game and give Pima the lead.
Sophomore Jaylen Alexander posted a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds to go with two assists and one block.
Oldham scored 13 points and had eight rebounds as he went 4 for 8 from the field.
Gonzales contributed with eight points.
The Aztecs achieved their first Region I, Division I Championship since 2018-19.
The 29 wins is their most wins in a season since 2018-19 when they went 29-7. The Aztecs went 18-4 in ACCAC conference, which tied their best conference record since the 2017-18 season.
They were 18-1 at the West Campus Aztec Gymnasium.
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