Region 18 title contender upends #23 ranked Apaches in season opener.

The #23 ranked Cochise College Men’s basketball team opened the Spring ’21 NJCAA regular with a loss to Snow College of the Scenic West Athletic Conference here last night.

The Badgers used a balanced scoring attack to take a 42-32 halftime lead. Cochise opened the game with solid play on both ends of the floor but was hampered by poor transition defense in the last 5 minutes of the first half.

The Badgers came out strong in the second half scoring on their first six possessions to push the lead.

Cochise was led by Freshmen Jonathan Garcia and Stephen “Tank” Byard, who tallied 14 points off the bench. Former Sierra Vista Buena graduate Quay Lausa-Gentry chipped in 13 points in his first career start as a Sophomore.

“What a great experience for our guys to get a non-conference game prior to starting our 16 game ACCAC schedule next Tuesday. Again, I feel it really needs to be stated. grateful to our administration and our athletic training staff for putting this together for us to have a season,” said Head Coach Jerry Carrillo. “Many NJCAA and NCAA programs are “opting out” this season, but we are getting to play. We also need to thank Snow College for coming to Arizona and playing. Tonight we saw that Snow is about 60 practices and four live game scrimmages ahead of us and could practice all Fall ’20 semester. As a coaching staff, we need to communicate to our guys the importance of “honoring the process” and getting better each day on the practice floor. At times tonight, we looked like we only had approximately 15 days of practice. We are very excited to work with this group of young men and see where they take us this season.”

Associate Athletic Director Guy Meyer, Head Trainer Sierra Williams, and Assistant Trainer Whitney Wilson did an outstanding job of setting up the Stronghold Gymnasium for the first game. Last night also marked the return of former Sierra Vista graduate and former Cochise Apache player and Assistant Coach Derek Lane to the sidelines. He is a winner and legend in these parts. Lastly, this season marks 26 years for Head Coach Jerry Carrillo with the Apaches. He has amassed 560 wins in those 26 seasons.

Next Up

Cochise will travel to Tucson on Tuesday, Jan. 26, for an ACCAC showdown with NJCAA DII Power Pima CC. Tip-off is slated at 7:30 p.m.