PRESCOTT — The Cochise College men’s basketball team defeated Yavapai College 108-100 in Friday night’s regular season finale and in so doing extended their streak of consecutive years of qualifying for the NJCAA Region I Playoffs to 12 — the longest such streak in the state.
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But, the win sends the Apaches to the region quarterfinals Tuesday night at Mesa Community College, riding a two-game winning streak, and having scored 100 points or more six times in their last nine contests.
“It means a lot,” 13-year Cochise College head coach Jerry Carrillo said. “We had some growing pains this year and some tough times, but we’ve established ourselves as a postseason team. It took us longer to clinch this year, but we’re in.”
Cochise led comfortably 54-38 at the half, but in the second half, the Roughriders began lighting it up from beyond the arc, and a 62-point second half forced the Apaches to work for the victory down the stretch.
“Our defensive integrity in the second half wasn’t as good as it should have been,” Carrillo said.
Yavapai shot 12-of-17 from three-point range in the second half.
Cochise was led in scoring by forward Steve White, who had 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the field. Point guard Thomas Shumpert pumped in 23 points and sophomore guard Dynile Forbes added 18. Mike Martin scored 11 off the bench, John Clark added 10 as did Victor Reid to round out six Apaches in double figures.
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