YUMA, Ariz. – The ACCAC regular season champion Arizona Western men's basketball (22-8, 12-3) suffered a narrow 84-83 defeat against rival Eastern Arizona College at The House on Saturday, as a late comeback and explosive bench scoring could not overcome a double-digit deficit in the final moments.

The Matadors found themselves trailing for much of this intense matchup, as Eastern Arizona opened up a 14-point lead deep into the second half behind efficient perimeter shooting and steady ball movement. Arizona Western's offensive depth came alive after halftime, with a massive push from the reserves that chipped away at the Gila Monsters' advantage. With just over four minutes remaining, Eastern Arizona still held a double-digit edge before Brad Ballinger's clutch three-pointer stretched the gap to 12. Refusing to fold, Arizona Western responded with defensive pressure and timely buckets, narrowing the margin to one after a determined final possession that saw Kylian Loudegue-D'Jim score at the buzzer. Key free throws by Derek Collins with 12 seconds left ultimately proved decisive, as the Matadors' last rally fell just short.

Mario Brunetto led the Matadors with 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line in 28 minutes. Matt Anglo chipped in 13 points in just 18 minutes, converting 5-of-10 from the field and hitting two crucial three-pointers. Engel Gutierrez sparked the bench effort, contributing 10 points, four rebounds—three of them on the offensive glass—and going 4-of-9 from the floor.

Arizona Western's bench delivered 51 points, powering the late surge and highlighting the team's extraordinary depth. The Matadors finished the game 32-of-68 (47.1 percent) from the field and made 10 three-pointers on 38.5 percent shooting. They dominated interior scoring with 32 points in the paint and converted 14 second chance points off 13 offensive rebounds. Despite committing only five turnovers and posting a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (11 assists to five turnovers), Arizona Western could not overcome Eastern's hot shooting from deep (45.5 percent) and a slight rebounding deficit.

"It's all you can ask that they fight," Matadors Head Coach Kyle Isaacs said. "We ended up on the wrong end of it and very pleased and happy with our effort."

The Matadors were without key players Marsai Mason, Boubacar Diatta and Nikola Aleksic who sat out with minor injuries. All should be back for the Region I playoffs next Thursday. The Matadors played all 11 players they had available with 10 of them scoring. 

"We've always been really deep since we've started," Isaacs said. "We've played nine to 10 guys this whole year. That's been one of our strengths is the pack. We have to have a short memory and it's now on to survive and advance mode and we get our first opportunity to get a March win which are some of the best in college basketball. We hope to get that on Thursday. 

Up Next

After winning the ACCAC regular season championship outright, Arizona Western is the #1 seed in the Region I playoffs and will host the College of Southern Nevada on Thursday, March 5th at 7:00 pm MST.