T-Birds Soar South To Face Arizona Western

Mesa, AZ - The Mesa Thunderbird men's and women's basketball teams hit the road Wednesday evening for a pair of games at conference leader; Arizona Western College. The women will get things started at 5:30 pm, with the men to follow at 7:30 pm.

Women's Basketball:

Wednesday's match-up pits a pair of squads currently ranked in the NJCAA Top 20 National Polls. The visiting Thunderbirds (13-6 overall, 8-4 ACCAC) are currently ranked #20 in the latest NJCAA DII Women's Basketball Poll and are currently riding a five-game win streak. Arizona Western (20-1 overall, 9-1 ACCAC) enters play ranked #16 in the latest NJCAA DI Women's Basketball National Poll and hasn't lost since November 17 at Pima. Wednesday's tilt features the reigning ACCAC Players of the Week squaring off against one another. AWC freshman Alliance Ndiba was named the ACCAC DI Women's Basketball Player of the Week this past Monday, while freshman Taylor Tiulana from the T-Birds was named the ACCAC DII Women's Basketball Player of the Week.

When the Lady Matadors visited Mesa back on December 4, the Lady Mats held off the T-Birds 56-43. Mesa jumped on AWC in the opening quarter, taking a 17-8 lead after the first ten minutes. The T-Birds scored only nine points in both the second and third quarters and fell in a low-scoring defensive affair.

Men's Basketball:

Arizona Western (18-3 overall, 11-1 ACCAC), who are currently receiving votes in the latest NJCAA DI Men's Basketball Poll and are currently in first place in the ACCAC basketball standings, host the T-Birds (4-12 overall, 2-9 ACCAC) on Wednesday evening. Mesa has fallen in their last three games and dropped their game at home to Arizona Western back on December 4 by a final of 82-70. Sophomore Mojus Mojus from the Matadors is the reigning ACCAC DI Men's Basketball Player of the Week, as he averaged 19.3 points per game last week in the Mats three wins; including 30 points in their win against Cochise.

Both games on Wednesday will be live-streamed by AWC-TV and can be seen for free by visiting this link: https://awcmatadors.com/video.

The Thunderbirds return home this Saturday to host Central Arizona College. The women will get things started at 2 pm inside of Theo Heap Gymnasium, followed by the men at 4 pm.

Don't forget to check out the MCC Team Shop, as well as our Booster Club.