SIGNAL PEAK — There's still a lot of fight left in the Central Arizona College men's basketball team. The Vaqueros were at their tenacious best in a 79-77 victory over Tohono O'odham on Saturday at the George Young Activity Center.

Central erased a seven-point deficit with a 15-2 run, then held off the Jegos by going 4 for 5 from the field in the final 4:42. Nathaniel Wright made all four baskets — three of which were dunks — and each came off an assist.

"We were able to get the ball where we wanted for easy baskets instead of throwing it all over the court and settling for early contested jumpers," CAC coach JD Pollock said.

The Jegos, he said, "like to speed you up and make you uncomfortable, so you have to adjust to their pressure. Although we had (18) turnovers, we made enough adjustments to win the game. That's a sign the team is improving."

The Vaqueros (10-12, 6-8 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) came in trailing fourth-place Cochise by one game for the final Region 1 playoff berth and third-place Eastern Arizona by two games. Eastern played at Cochise on Saturday night.

With eight games remaining, Central is still very much in contention for a postseason spot.

"It's been a little rocky, but we're still fighting," Pollock said. "I'm proud of the guys and happy for them."

Led by Malik Thames' 19 points, five Vaqueros scored in double figures. Brandon Rosser provided 15 points, Wright had 14 on 7-of-12 shooting along with nine rebounds, and Deshawn Jones scored 14 while making 5 of 8 shots. Lanerryl Johnson had 10 points for CAC, which shot 53 percent from the field in the second half and 48 percent for the game.

The Jegos (11-11, 7-7), who defeated the Vaqueros 87-84 on Nov. 20 in Sells, capitalized on four Central turnovers during a 9-2 run that gave them a 59-52 lead with 11:39 to play.

But instead of falling apart, CAC responded with the game-turning surge that began with seven points by Rosser. Wright scored the next four points and Johnson had the final four as the Vaqueros went 7 for 7 from the field on seven possessions.

Wright's dunk put Central ahead to stay at 63-61 with 9:05 remaining.

The Vaqueros matched their largest lead of seven points at 69-62 with 6:34 left when Thames made a reverse layup off a feed from Vincentas Aleksandravicuis. TOCC never got closer than three points after that until Christian Thompson was fouled on a three-point try with six seconds left and made all three free throws for the game's final points.

There were 11 lead changes and seven ties in a game that began with the Jegos making two technical free throws prior to tipoff because a CAC player was caught dunking during warmups.

After the Vaqueros went ahead 23-16, TOCC regained the lead with an 8-0 run that began with three-pointers by Brandon Neskahl and Ruben Silvas.

Down 33-29, CAC went on an 11-2 run behind five points by Johnson to go up 38-33 in the final minute of the first half before settling for a 38-36 halftime lead.

Rounding out the scoring for the Vaqueros were Aleksandravicuis with five points and Jaylen Benton with two. Aleksandravicuis also had nine rebounds.

Silvas led all scorers with 25 points, making 3 of 6 three-pointers and going 8 for 14 overall. Thompson had 17 for the Jegos, who shot 42 percent and had a 22-12 advantage in points off turnovers.