Marana graduate Wes Ball made two free throws with two seconds left to secure an 86-82 win Thursday for No. 1 Pima Community College over No. 8 Davidson (N.C.) Davidson-Davie in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Division II tournament at Danville, Ill.
The Aztecs, who improved to 34-0 with the victory, will next play No. 4 Champaign (Ill.) Parkland (32-2) at 4 p.m., Tucson time, on Friday in the semifinal round.
Parkland beat No. 12 Columbia (Md.) Howard 60-54 on Wednesday.
Pima’s win over Davidson-Davie is its closest since the Aztecs defeated Division I power Glendive (Mont.) Dawson 95-92 on Dec. 29 at the West Campus Aztec Gym.
“We knew (Davidson-Davie) was going to pressure us a lot on defense and that they were aggressive,” Pima guard Cohenj Gonzales said in a school press release. “We had to use backdoors against them, we had to out-cut and get ourselves open and couldn’t get pushed off the 3-point line. We knew it was going to be physical, and we had to be physical back.”
Pima led the entire game against Davidson-Davie and built a margin as large as 16 points — 23-7 with 12:03 left in the first half.
The Storm stormed back with a 11-0 run to narrow the lead to 29-25 with 6:58 left in the first half.
Pima maintained the lead and led 42-33 before going into halftime with a 42-36 margin.
The Aztecs took a 61-49 lead with 12:23 left following a layup by Gonzales, who led his team with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field, 2 of 5 from 3-point range.
Davidson-Davie then went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead 61-58 with 10:03 remaining.
The Storm cut the lead to one point three times afterward but could never take the lead.
The last time was with 3:28 remaining and Pima holding on to a 76-75 lead.
Ball made a layup with 1:39 left to put Pima ahead 80-76.
After a steal by Max Majerle, Mason Hunt scored on a layup with 1:24 remaining.
Aden Taylor followed with a layup for Davidson-Davie and converted two free throws following a Pima turnover with 21 seconds left to cut the lead to 82-80.
Kota Benson, formerly of Baboquivari before graduating from Mesa High School, was fouled with six seconds left and he converted both free throws.
Benson finished with 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.
“Plays needed to be made in tight games like that and I was able to make shots and get my teammates involved,” Benson said in a Pima press release about his second-half contribution, which included 16 points.
After Taylor made a layup with 2 seconds left to cut the lead to 84-82, Ball was immediately fouled on the inbound pass before he made his two game-clinching free throws.
Ball finished with eight points and 13 rebounds.
Gabe Oldham finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots before fouling out with 2 minutes left and Pima leading 78-76.
Mason Hunt had 17 points and three blocked shots off the bench, his second straight strong performance as a reserve in the national tournament.
He had 20 points and eight rebounds in the 99-66 win over SUNY Niagara in a first-round game Tuesday.
Pima has reached the semifinal round for the second time under head coach Brian Peabody, who is in his 13th season as the head coach.
The Aztecs made it to the 2017-18 championship game.
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