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Photo by Rebecca Straughmatt Mesa Legend |
| Mesa’s Mychal Hodgson skies over a Luke Air Force Base defender in the 109-79 victory. Mesa improved to an undefeated mark of 4-0 on the young season. |
Mesa soars to victory
Ben Lohmeier
Mesa Legend
On the eve of Thanksgiving, the Mesa Community College men’s basketball team delivered an early holiday treat to visiting Luke Air Force Base by dropping 109 points on them and pushing their early season record to 4-0.
In a sloppy game the Thunderbirds prevailed, 109-79, despite seeing a total of 64 free throws, 47 turnovers and 56 personal fouls between the two teams. Both basketball squads were out of sorts at times and each capitalized on the other’s mistakes at every given chance.
At halftime Mesa led by just seven points with the score, 45-38. Mesa had the full court press on for most of the first half, wreaking havoc on Luke and forcing them to make ill advised passes. But the T-Birds also looked out of control as the fast paced game seemed to catch up to them as they ran from baseline to baseline.
“We were just playing too fast,” said MCC head coach and former NBA player, Alton Lister. “We were playing into their hands with no type of purpose. We want to create a lot of turnovers from our defense and then attack the rim.”
A bright spot through all of the turnover mayhem was Mesa forward Nate Perry’s double-double. Perry led MCC with 26 points off of 90 percent shooting from the field, pulled down 12 boards and even dished out eight assists. He also seemed to take on to Lister’s “attack the rim” idea as he had two highlight reel dunks on the night.
“Nate is going to surprise the league this year,” said assistant coach John Mulhern. “He is very skillful and has a very high basketball IQ, he understands the game.”
Perry wasn’t the only one putting up points for MCC that night though as four other Thunderbird players were in double figures. Forwards Dustin Kereluk and Mychal Hodgson each put up 18 points with shooting guard David Brisco scoring 14, as well as Anthony Donzella netting 13.
“Our team scores in bunches,” Lister said. “But we are very aggressive and tonight that got them into the double bonus very early.”
In the second half, Mesa seemed to settle down a bit, but the fouls kept coming from Luke even after the T-Birds had the game in hand. Mesa ended up shooting 48 free throws in the game and making only 27 of them.
“Our free throw shooting was just horrendous,” Lister said. “But that is why we play these games and we will work to improve on everything in practice.”
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