SIGNAL PEAK – The Vaqueras thumped last-place Phoenix 75-34 at the George Young Activity Center to raise their record to 5-6 overall and 2-3 in Arizona Community College Athletic Conference play. Central outscored the Bears (1-8, 0-4 ACCAC) in all four quarters – 29-12 in the first, 16-8 in the second, 13-10 in the third and 17-4 in the fourth.

"Our goal was to keep them to 13 points (or less) in each quarter," CAC coach Geoff Golden said. "We've had leads going into the second half most of the time at home and haven't been able to hold on. That was big for us to execute the full 40 minutes. We did that for the most part."

The victory was the first at home for Central this season following losses to Bella Vista Prep (79-76), Chandler-Gilbert (74-69) and Yavapai (72-66). The Vaqueras led at halftime in the last two games.
"The real key (against Phoenix) was to get that early lead," Golden said. "We're defending our home court. Let's go out and punch them in the mouth, so to speak, get a nice lead and build on that. We were able to do that, which is a good sign for our team."

Golden said the offensive execution was "better, but still not where we want it to be. We haven't been able to play five-on-five in practice (the Vaqueras are down to nine players due to Cailee Crawford's knee injury), which is an unfortunate situation, but a game like this gives us a chance to run some things offensively that we don't get to do in practice.
"That was a big plus for us, to work on some things we needed to work on."

Phoenix came in averaging just 48.7 points overall and 37.0 in conference play. In their previous ACCAC games, the Bears lost by 36 points to Pima (70-34), by 44 to Eastern Arizona (77-33) and by 27 to Chandler-Gilbert (71-44).

Pa'Shence Walker led the Vaqueras with 21 points, followed by Anna Costa Reira with 13, Senya Rabouin with 11 and Kymani Bledsoe with 10.
Walker made five 3-pointers, with three coming in the first quarter. Mia Ross had three 3-pointers, two in the second period. Costa Riera scored 11 points in the fourth quarter.
CAC took a 30-point lead at 54-24 on Bledsoe's basket with 4:06 remaining in the third period. Rabouin's basket with 57.7 seconds left in the fourth was the game's final basket and sealed the 41-point margin of victory, which was a season best for the Vaqueras.
Aiyana Vela was the top scorer for Phoenix with 14 points.

The Vaqueras travel to Henderson, Nevada, to play 10th-ranked Salt Lake, No. 5 Southern Idaho and Southern Nevada Dec. 19-21 before resuming ACCAC play at home against Arizona Western on Jan. 4.