DOUGLAS — On the last night of the regular season, the Cochise College Apaches wrapped up their 12th consecutive postseason trip.
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At 7:30 p.m. tonight, the Apaches visit Mesa Community College in a quarterfinal matchup. The winner will advance to play Eastern Arizona College on Thursday night in the semifinals.
Last Tuesday at home Cochise avenged an earlier loss at Mesa with a 90-73 win over the Thunderbirds.
“Survive and advance,” Cochise head coach Jerry Carrillo said. “Hopefully we can have the kind of effort we had Tuesday night against them. We defended better, forced them to shoot from the perimeter and got back on defense.”
All season Carrillo has been wary of his team’s lack of consistent “defensive integrity,” but in recent games, the Apaches’ offensive output has scored 90 points of more in seven of their last nine games.
“When Steve White’s playing well getting in the interior and we’re not relying on perimeter shots, we’re scoring, “ Carrillo said.
In Friday’s finale at Yavapai, White, a 6-foot-7 freshman, scored 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the field.
The winner of the Thursday semifinal in Thatcher will travel to Yuma on Saturday to take on nationally ranked top seed Arizona Western for the right to represent Region I in the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.
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