In its best season ever, the Pima College men’s basketball team had to settle for a second-place finish.
No. 1-seeded Triton College held on to beat the No. 2 Aztecs 89-85 in the NJCAA Division II championship game Saturday night in Danville, Illinois.
The Aztecs qualified for the tournament for the third time in program history, and the second consecutive year. Pima’s best finish was last season when the Aztecs made it to the Elite Eight.
This time, the Aztecs made program history with a first trip to the Final Four as well as a program-record 31 wins.
“I’m really proud of my guys. That’s a huge accomplishment,” Pima coach Brian Peabody said of making it to the championship game. “They’re the best team to ever come out of Pima.”
The game started with five different lead changes in less than seven minutes of play, but a 9-0 run gave the Trojans their first substantial lead at 21-14 midway through the first half.
Triton College ended the first half on a 13-3 run for a 39-26 lead at halftime.
“We didn’t handle the ball very well in the first half,” Peabody said. “We got down early.”
Pima burst out of the gate with an 16-3 run at the start of the second half to tie the game at 42 with 15:36 left, but the Trojans followed up with their own run.
The Aztecs got within one point with less than eight minutes to play, but weren’t able to take the lead down the stretch as Triton held on.
Pima sophomore Alize Travis said he went onto the court with a “got to do what we do” attitude, but thinks it took too long to improve on their shooting.
Travis led the Aztecs with 22 points. Keven Biggs and Isaiah Murphy each added 16.
