Pima Community College sports

Pima outlasts Glendale behind Mason Hunt’s 29 points to remain undefeated

Mason Hunt fights for the loose ball in the Aztecs’ 105-96 win over Glendale Community College (Stephanie van Latum/AllSportsTucson)

Riding a nine game winning streak headed into their matchup with Glendale Community College, Pima knew that staying undefeated and notching win number 10 wasn’t going to be a cake walk.

Glendale (10-3, 2-2 ACCAC conference) would be the Aztecs’ toughest test thus far.

The Aztecs met that test head on and aced it with a 105-96 ACCAC conference win over the Gauchos on Saturday afternoon in Aztec Gym.

No. 10 Pima is now 10-0 on the season and 3-0 in conference play.

“A win is a win I’m really excited about that” Pima head coach Brian Peabody said.

Taking an early lead, it appeared the Aztecs wouldn’t get the test they were expecting, but Glendale came charging back to tie it up at 49 a piece at the half.

It was a fast and furious back-and-forth game with 16 lead changes and eight ties before Pima pulled away in the final minutes.

“We lead the country in scoring we average 103 points a game, and they’re really good. They average 97 points a game so you are right, it was fast and furious. We need to get a little bit better input from our bench guys. I had to play my starters way too long and they were tired and so we’re going to try and work on that and get our bench guys to play significant minutes and take the pressure off of our starters.” Said Peabody.

Pima’s defense had a hard time stopping Glendale’s Stephan Miller who was a menace on the court scoring 33 points in 37 minutes but the defense was able to keep the rest of the Gauchos in check.

Mason Hunt went into the half with seven points before catching fire nabbing 22 of his team-high 29 points in the second half. He added five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block to his game stats.

“We started having some defensive lapses not getting back and they crawled their way back and we were 49-49 at the half. It’s a zero, zero game from there and we came out and coach Peabody got us going at half time and we just came out and trusted his sets and we were able to secure the win.” Hunt said.

Isaac Johnson added 24 points on 10 for 14 shooting from the floor and 2 for 3 from the arc. He had seven rebounds, one assist and one block before fouling out with under five minutes left in the game.

“I was just trying to bring the energy for my team. I knew it was going to be a dog fight the whole time.” Johnson said.

Free throws were a big issue throughout the game with Pima going 12-28 before Taevean Famutimi-Brown hit four in the last minute of the game to help secure the win.

Two other Aztecs scored in double-digits.

Brock Mendoza ended with 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Isaiah Hill who played at Tucson Premier Academy added 12 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and three steals.

Pima has a total of five players from Southern Arizona including Hill.

  • Freshman guard – Gerron Grahm played at Premier Academy with Hill.
  • Freshman guard – Daniel Ortiz – Palo Verde
  • Freshman guard – Paul Olivares Yepiz – Salpointe
  • Sophomore forward – Mason Tippett – Cienega

Starter sophomore forward Kaelum Brown dislocated his knee in warmups causing the coaching staff to make last minute changes to the lineup.

The Aztecs travel to Scottsdale Community College for a ACCAC conference battle with the Artichokes. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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