On Wednesday, the Cochise Apaches traveled to Signal Peak to battle Central Arizona College and returned home with a one point victory.
This win is the Apaches 15th one of the year and now puts their record at 15-3, as they sit in second place in a close battle for the ACCAC title.
Wednesday’s game saw the Vaqueros jump out to a 12-2 lead with just over four minutes gone by in the first half. Cochise fought back, tying the score at 29, with a few minutes to go in the half. However, Central would take a lead into halftime, 39-35. Cochise came out and took its biggest second-half lead, going up by 10 points with just over eight minutes left to play.
Central’s Karriem Simmons made three straight 3’s and the Vaqueros went up 1 with 2:13 left in the contest. With 17.1 seconds remaining and the Apaches trailing by one, Cochise forced a CAC turnover, and Arell Hennings took what would be the game-winning layup with 11.3 seconds left to play.
Hennings finished with a game-high 21 points, while adding four rebounds and four assists. Dallas Polk-Hilliard ended with 14 points and six rebounds.
“We played better defense than we had over the past couple of games. We need to continue to play good defense and score the ball,” said Head Coach Jerry Carrillo.
Saturday the Apaches hosted Glendale at the Stronghold Gymnasium and Cochise made it back atop the ACCAC with its 95-85 win. Cochise went into halftime, trailing Glendale by 2. During the second-half, the Apaches were able to really put the ball in the basket scoring 58 second-half points.
The last 8 minutes of the game the Apaches played well at both ends executing their offense and forcing Glendale into tough contested jump shots. Arell Hennings led the Apaches and finished the game with 21 points making all 8 of his free throws along with 3-6 from the arc. With that second half performance, the Apaches look to be back on track as one of the best scoring teams in the nation.
Jerry Carrillo said “I really like how we shared the ball tonight. We need to continue to improve on both ends of the floor and take it one game at a time.”
The Apaches sit atop the ACCAC in a 4-way tie at 8-3.