PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The Yavapai College men's basketball team made the home crowd forget about its rough start on Saturday afternoon inside of Walraven Gymnasium with a 23-point comeback victory over the Mesa Community College Thunderbirds in its last game of 2023. 

"I am proud of our resiliency," Head Coach Kevon Davis said after the win. "We never want to be down that big, however, our players never gave up and responded to adversity."

Saturday's 92-89 victory pushes the Roughriders overall record to 8-7, surpassing last season's win total, and conference record to 2-3. 

The aforementioned adversity struck quickly on Saturday afternoon as a fast-moving first half saw the Thunderbirds take a commanding 39-16 lead with just under five minutes left until halftime. 

Down 23, the Roughriders began to chip away before the break and outscored Mesa 17-4 in the closing minutes of the first half, highlighted by a couple of five-point swings from freshman guard Kam O'Bannon and sophomore guard Tym Richardson, respectively. 

With two minutes to play in the half and YC trailing 42-21, O'Bannon nailed a three-pointer and followed it up with a steal on Mesa's next possession while capping it off with a ferocious dunk. 

A minute and a half later, Richardson hit a basket in transition to cut the deficit to 43-30 and once more, the Roughriders were able to force a Thunderbird turnover on their next possession. 

With less than 10 on the clock, Richardson got the inbound pass, dribbled up on the floor and nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to send YC into the locker room down by just 10 points at 43-33, a 13-point improvement from the daunting deficit it faced five minutes earlier. 

After halftime, the Roughriders came out as hot as they went in, outscoring Mesa 20-10 in the first five minutes, capped off by a three-pointer off the fingertips of O'Bannon to tie things up at 53-53. 

Five minutes after tying things up, YC took its first lead of the day since the opening minute on a stepback three from sophomore guard Ray Glasgow to give the Roughriders a narrow 63-62 advantage with 10 minutes left to play. 

Despite seeing their big lead evaporate, the Thunderbirds never gave up and went back-and-forth with the Roughriders until the buzzer hit zero. In fact, in the final 10 minutes of gameplay, five lead changes occurred, neither team led by more than five points and the Roughriders hit four go-ahead three-pointers after Glasgow's aforementioned three. 

With 8:15 on the clock, O'Bannon hit another three to give YC a 68-66 lead. After Mesa regained the lead, Glasgow hit another stepback three with five minutes on the clock to give the Roughriders a 79-76 advantage. 

Mesa tied the game at 79-79 on the next possession, however, sophomore guard Kieran Carr hit one from downtown to immediately take back the lead. 

Two possessions later for both teams, deja vu struck as Mesa hit a three to tie things up at 82-82 and was followed by another three-pointer from Carr to give YC an 85-82 lead with just under three minutes left to play. 

In the closing seconds of the game, Carr wound up hitting another basket to give YC an 87-84 lead with one minute to play and, despite some drama, the Roughriders were able to convert on five of six free-throw attempts (including a four-for-four effort from Glasgow) to clinch a 92-89 victory. 

Glasgow led all YC scorers with 27 while O'Bannon and Carr had 16 and Richardson finished with 15. 

Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action on Wednesday, January 3, in Phoenix, Arizona, where they will take on the Phoenix College Bears with gametime set for 7:30 p.m.