Khari Holloway scored a career-high 26 points (Photo by Jacob Dewald)
Khari Holloway scored a career-high 26 points (Photo by Jacob Dewald)

Holloway's big night helps men's basketball over Arizona Western, 87-58

  MESA, AZ - A career night from Khari Holloway (So., Jackson, Miss/Mountain Pointe H.S.) helped the Mesa men's basketball team topple Arizona Western, 87-58, the second straight time the T-Birds have hung a big loss on the Matadors in The Heap Gym.

  Holloway scored a career-high 26 points by going 8-12 from the floor, including 4-7 on three-pointers, and even made all six of his free throws.

  The 29-point win added to the 45-point victory MCC scored over the Matadors in last year's Region I championship game.

  The T-Birds took the lead to stay at 6-5 on a layup by Mitch Burnett (Fr., Phoenix, AZ/Central H.S.). That ignited a 20-7 run by Mesa which ended with a jumper by Burnett putting MCC on top, 26-12, with 10:24 remaining in the half.  AWC only got closer than ten points one time the rest of the way.

  Mesa had a 43-29 halftime lead and eventually built its margin to 30 at 85-55.

    Mesa shot an outstanding .613 in the first period and backed that up with 52 percent shooting in the second half, finishing 32-56 for a .571 mark.

  Joining Holloway in double figures was Burnett with ten, plus six rebounds. Kyle Bingham (Fr., Mesa, AZ/Mountain View H.S.) scored nine, as did Andrew Jones (So., Portland, Ore/Westview H.S.).Jordan Pratt (Fr., Mesa, AZ/Red Mountain H.S.) had eight points and six assists.

  The T-Birds, now 3-1 overall and 2-1 in ACCAC play, face a big test Wednesday night hosting sixth-ranked Indian Hills (Iowa) at 7:30 p.m. at Theo Heap Gym.