South Mountain Junior College (17-11) is definitely playing their best basketball of the junior college season, and at the right time of the year. After winning four games in a row and becoming the ACCAC's hottest team, South would fall in overtime to top-ranked Cochise College last weekend.
On Wednesday evening and at home again, South Mountain would look to get back on the winning track against an Eastern Arizona (20-8) team that is in the hunt for a conference title this season. Eastern came into Wednesday's game riding a high, after winning both of their games last week. 6-foot-2 freshman guard Darrian Ringo earned his second ACCAC Player of the Week honor last week after scoring a ridiculous 47 points and dishing out 6 assists in his team's win over Scottsdale JC.
The Eastern Arizona team is loaded with young talent, and one of the conference's best players in 6-foot-6, 240-pound sophomore forward Jaraan Lands - making for an exciting match-up Wednesday evening, as they would face a trio of players for South Mountain that have been very good all season long. While I had predicted this would be an excellent game, it would not be, as South Mountain's talented trio simply proved to be too much for Eastern - from start to finish.
With assistant coaches from the University of Minnesota and also the University of San Diego in the gym to catch the action, South Mountain would continue to ride the exceptional play of 6-foot-9 sophomore post Connor MacDougall (University of New Mexico signee) early and often. MacDougall's advanced low-post foot-work, physical strength and athleticism was simply too much for Eastern Arizona early. After a strong two-handed dunk over a defender in traffic with 13 minutes left to play in the first half, South Mountain would take a 16-14 lead.
After a nice steal and a breakaway dunk by Jaraan Lands, Eastern Arizona would tie the game at 18 with 10 minutes left to play in the first half.
But then a steal and dunk by South Mountain 6-foot-4 freshman forward Terrence Johnson, and then another strong dunk inside the paint from MacDougall, and then a nice three-point play from 6-foot sophomore guard Jackson Price, and the South Mountain trio was back in business.
South Mountain would take a 46-36 lead into the half.
Whatever was said at halftime by Eastern Arizona head coach Maurice Leitzke, it did not work apparently, because South Mountain would extend their lead to 17 points, 55-38, after just 3 minutes in the second half.
Eastern Arizona would look almost lethargic in the second half, and would never seem to quite get back into the game. South Mountain would eventually walk away with a nice 85-71 home victory.
Connor MacDougall again led South Mountain with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Terrence Johnson finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Eastern Arizona was led by 6-foot-5 freshman guard Malik Sanchez with a game-high 23 points in the loss.
