Mesa basketball took down West Hills College 65-56 on Saturday, Nov. 30, in the home opener to secure 5-4 record on the season.

Mesa took control of this game early and had a commanding 33-17 lead at halftime. West Hills went on a run and made this a one-possession game late in the second half, but free throws and great defense allowed Mesa to hang on.

Mesa’s defense was stellar, forcing 26 turnovers and holding West Hills to just 18.8% shooting on three-pointers. West Hills plays with a much smaller lineup than most teams that Mesa plays.

“We had to make some adjustments and go a lot smaller,” head coach Ed Helsher said. “We had guards playing in the forward spots, doing the forwards job which they hadn’t done all season.”

Novian Cherry led the way with 24 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. With less than 10 minutes left in the game, Cherry went on a roll hitting big shots on back-to-back possessions. Cherry is averaging 22 points per game.

In the second half when West Hills started to make their comeback, Mesa made the proper changes, and they were able to hang on for the win.

“They didn’t really have a true center, it kind of took us out of what we had been doing for a long period of time and we had to fix it,” Helsher said. “I was really happy to see the guys really executed well and I think that was the key to our victory.”

With a lead at the end, Mesa needed to put the game away.

“Well the two biggest things were, we wanted the players to take more time of the clock, we didn’t want possessions to go where they just dribbled down and nobody stopped them,” Helscher said.

The team was successful. At the end of the game, most of the possessions led to Mesa scoring and depleting the entire shot-clock. They were able to do that until there were 2 minutes remaining, and West Hills was forced to foul to stop the clock, which sent Mesa to the free throw line.

“I was real happy with the effort. We got a big effort in the second half when we could have folded,” Helscher said.

“We had a three game-losing streak where we shot about 44% from the free throw line so it was a concern for us, especially at the end of the ballgame. Gratefully the kids came through and hit some very big shots for us,” said Helscher after his team went 16-17 from the free throw line.

West Hills is now 5-2 on the season and were led by Nick Gianakoulias, who finished with 11 points and hit three big 3-point shots in the second half. All of his three-point plays came at a time when West Hills had to score or risk losing control of the game.

The next home game for Mesa is on Dec. 28 in the Holiday Inn Tournament at Mesa College that will run through Dec. 30.