by The Pima Community College women’s basketball team (1-1) opened the regular season on Friday and Saturday at the Eastern Arizona Classic in Thatcher.
The No. 6 ranked Aztecs (Division II) suffered a demoralizing loss on Friday but bounced back on Saturday as they beat Howard College (Division I) 66-56. The Aztecs outscored the Hawks 20-11 in the second quarter.
Freshman Jacqulynn Nakai (Flagstaff HS) scored a game-high 18 points to go along with four rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Izzy Spruit (Mesquite HS) went 5 for 9 from three-point range and finished with 17 points. Sophomore Aubre Fortner contributed with six points and eight rebounds.
The Aztecs suffered a 77-43 loss to No. 6 ranked New Mexico Junior College (Division I) to open the regular season.
Nakai finished with a team-high 13 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists. The Aztecs shot 4 for 39 from the three-point stripe.
“We play bigger and better Division I teams to prepare ourselves for our conference,” Pima women’s basketball head coach Todd Holthaus said. “We have a lot of new faces that need to be exposed to tough competition. It was a good weekend for us to start the season.”
