Cochise gains hard fought road split with league leading Eastern Arizona Gila Monsters
THATCHER, Ariz. --- The Cochise College Apaches Men's Basketball team took to the road this weekend to take on the league-leading and 11-0 in ACCAC Eastern Arizona College Gila Monsters in back-to-back ACCAC battles.
Friday, February 2nd: Cochise 76, Eastern Arizona 83
In game one, Cochise came out strong and took a 47-40 lead to the locker room at halftime. Cochise had a lead over Eastern Arizona until the five-minute mark, but could not hang on as the Monsters were able to overtake them down the stretch to secure a hard-fought 83-76 win. Cochise was led by Sophomore, Tracy Godfrey Jr. who tallied 26 points on the night, while Sophomore Jalen Barbee chipped in 16 points in the tough road loss.
Saturday, February 3rd: Cochise 89, Eastern Arizona 87 (2OT)
In game two, Cochise was down 39-37 at halftime while both teams battled in the second half the lead changing 19 times. Eastern Arizona College tied the game at 66 with 11 seconds to go and the Apaches came down and got the ball to Godrey, who had a 7-foot shot with 2 seconds left in the front of the rim to force the first overtime period. Eastern Arizona College again was down two and tied the game at 77 with a putback, and Sophomore guard Riley Parker missed a 15-footer as time expired in the first overtime. Cochise was able to use two timely Parker 3-point field goals in the second overtime to take control and was able to come out with a very hard-fought 50-minute win, 89-87. Cochise was again led by Tracy Godfrey Jr. who had 28 points in the win, while Sophomore big man Merrick Small had a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
Cochise moves to 14-9 overall and 7-5 in ACCAC play.
In His Words..
Cochise Head Coach Jerry Carrillo
"This was truly a weekend to remember as we had some travel issues and then our on-floor leader and Point Guard Jordan Hernandez got injured at the beginning of the game Friday night, and we went out and played very well for about 35 minutes in Game 1, but EAC overpowered us in the last 5 minutes. Again, with this new unbalanced schedule, you learn a lot about your team as you have such a short turnaround to play game 2 the next day. I couldn't have been more proud of our guys as they fought so hard to win in Double OT versus the number 1 team in our Region on their home floor. Tracy Godfrey was a beast in the paint and Merrick Small is really coming on strong. Having Riley Parker back in the mix impacts our offense nicely. Again, a lot of credit has to go to my Assistant Coach Derek Lane as he had the scouting report down on the Monsters. EAC is well-coached and has good players—thus yesterday was a very good win.
Up Next..
Cochise Men's Basketball (14-9,7-5) will be back at home to take on NJCAA Region 1 and ACCAC rival Arizona Western College (17-7,10-4) in back-to-back games in the Stronghold Gymnasium this coming Friday and Saturday for 7:30 pm and 4:00 pm tip-offs.