April 4, 2006
SPORTSMCC fails in third attempt vs. Cochise
After a six-month adventure, the MCC men’s basketball season came to a close just before Spring Break.
Having locked up the fourth and final playoff spot in Division I of the ACCAC, the Thunderbirds not only knew they would be playing beyond the regular season, but against Cochise College in the first round.
Cochise spent a majority of the season ranked in the top 10 of the NJCAA national poll and rose to as high as No. 3 in the country.
Cochise was also the only team to beat MCC in final two weeks of the season as the T-Birds had easy wins over Scottsdale, Pima, and Yavapai Community Colleges, but lost by 27 points to the Apaches in Douglas.
The Thunderbirds were hoping for a repeat of the first-round game from 2005 playoffs in which then-freshman Arturo Donzella made a half-court shot at the buzzer to beat Cochise on their court to advance MCC to the second round.
However, there would be no déjà vu this year, as Cochise beat MCC for the third time this season, 104-98.
Just two points shy of the century mark, it was the T-Birds highest point output of the season.
Head coach Alton Lister said he felt satisfied despite the defeat because his team played at a high level. He commented that this game was much more competitive than the Feb. 27, loss because the team had nearly a week to game plan for Cochise.
Lister also mentioned his team competed more this time around stating, “The main thing that I emphasized was, ‘Hey, when we go up there, you know I don’t care if we all foul out, we (are) going to compete,’ and that’s what we did.”
Summing up the season, Lister believes his team did more with less to get the program its third consecutive 20-win season.
“I felt with the talent we had on the floor, if you really look at that on paper we shouldn’t have won a lot of games that we (did), we never should have been in a lot of games we were in.”
But I think the team stuck together, played good defense, (as) we were one of the top defensive teams night in, and night out. We weren’t a good rebounding team, we weren’t a good three-point shooting team, and there were a lot of things we were not, but the bottom line is we competed and played hard.”
Shifting to the offseason, the former NBA player and his staff have a busy schedule ahead. Lister has already met with all the players from this season’s roster to help plan their future, whether it is moving onto a four-year university or returning to MCC next season.
He believes that all the sophomores have the opportunity to continue playing if they wish and it is his responsibility to contact coaches and help send out tape of the players.
As for next season, the Thunderbirds will look to bring back the nucleus of point guard TJ Benson and First-team All-Conference forward Gabe Freeman, while adding several recruits.
Open gym sessions will be used to check out the skills of local high school players interested in playing for MCC in addition to summer leagues and weight training, which are expected to help improve the team as a whole.
“With the guys that we got coming back, if we could add a couple pieces to the puzzle we’ll be fine.” Lister added.