THATCHER, AZ — In front of a sold-out crowd at Guiteau Gymnasium, the Eastern Arizona College Gila Monsters held on for a 63-60 win over Cochise College to capture the Division 1 Region 1 Tournament Championship.
The Monsters led by 10 with 2 minutes to play but Cochise’s Riley Parker went on a scoring run to cut the lead to just 2 with under 30 seconds to play. Riley scored 15 of his game high 23 points in the 2nd half. Eastern’s Raysean Seamster sank 1 of 2 free throws with 2.9 seconds to play to put EAC up 3 and secure the win.
Seamster also was named tournament MVP for his 20-point effort in the game. He also surpassed 1,000 career points in the game.
Akok Machar had 14 and Leigh Rickwood-Pitt tallied 11 for the Monsters in the win.
Eastern will host the #3 team in the country, Salt Lake Community College, on Saturday, March 16th at 7pm for the West District Championship. The winner gets the automatic bid to the NJCAA National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Eastern’s last trip to the National Tournament came in the 2007-08 season when the finished fifth in the country. This year’s team is trying to pull off a trifecta that hasn’t happened at Eastern since the 1995. That is winning the regular season championship, the Region Tournament Championship and the District Tournament Championship.
Friday’s game will be broadcast live on KATO 1230 AM as well as Eastern Arizona College’s YouTube channel.
