Pima College women’s basketball star Raja Moreno-Ross won’t have to go very far for Christmas — she’s a Tucsonan, and a Tucson High School graduate.
It’s a good thing. After a grueling first half of the season — the Aztecs, in the NJCAA’s Division II, faced seven Division I schools in 15 games — Moreno-Ross and her teammates could certainly use a break.
“We’ve had a very, very tough schedule,” the forward said, “hence why we’ve moved up in the rankings.”
It’s true, even with an 8-7 record, the Aztecs were at No. 10 in the latest Division II national rankings.
But now, after beating Western Texas College 73-49 on Wednesday, the Aztecs get a breather as they don’t play again until after the new year.
By then, a lot might have changed for Moreno-Ross, Pima’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer.
People are also reading…
Saturday, the sophomore will travel to Honolulu for three days on an official recruiting visit to the University of Hawaii.
“It’s a present after Christmas,” she said, laughing. “A nice way to end the year.”
Hawaii and Colorado State, both NCAA Division I programs, have been the two schools in hottest pursuit of Moreno-Ross’ services. But don’t be surprised if she commits to the Rainbow Wahine before she gets back to the Old Pueblo.
“Hawaii is really pushing right now,” Moreno-Ross said. “They want to talk about a scholarship offer once I get up there.
“They saw me play in Phoenix at the beginning of the year, really liked it and decided they wanted to push forward.”
Before Moreno-Ross heads out to the Islands of Aloha, she spoke with the Star about the season, and what’s to come for the Aztecs in 2014.
At the halfway point of the season, how do you feel about the team?
A: “I feel very strongly about our season and where it’s at. We obviously haven’t had that many wins, but we just had a really hard schedule — probably the hardest in our conference — so you know that’s going to really help us out when we go into the second half of our season and conference play.”
Even in some of your losses to those top-notch teams, the games have been fairly close for the most part. What does that say about your team?
A: “We’re very capable of hanging with these teams. It just lets us know that we’re capable of hanging with those teams that have beaten us, and that moving forward into the second half there should be no reason as to why we can’t be the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.”
Why do you think the team has struggled recently in close games?
A: “You know, it was ever since the loss against Central Arizona (109-72 on Dec. 11). Huge loss, we’ve had a shaky schedule, and we heven’t gotten too much practice time. To this day, I feel like our last official practice was 2½ weeks ago, so going into a tournament we’re a very young team.
“We’re skilled, but we’re not skilled where we’re able to just jump into a game and play to our fullest capability without getting at least a couple practices in there. We pulled it together that last game and started looking like our old selves again.”
On that note, freshmen like Melody McLaughlin and Alicia Jones have been solid so far. How important have their contributions been?
A: “Alicia was there last year as a redshirt, so she knows what it was like coming in this year as a freshman and what we expected of her. She’s just a great offensive player. Melody is just a stallion of the team — she works very hard. She doesn’t always make the smartest decisions, but she works hard, and she knows what we expect of her.”
What do you expect out of the team the rest of the way?
A: “Just to continue playing hard and playing hard for a full 40 minutes. We did a great job playing hard for a full 30 minutes, 35 minutes.
“Now going into the second half of season, we understand that every single second counts, and every play counts, and we cannot take one moment off because that moment can be a complete game-changer, and it can completely switch the momentum of the game.
“So what I expect is a full 40 minutes of hard work and to play the game the way that we play it.”
Other sports
- Women’s tennis coach
- Gretchen Schantz
- was named the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) JUCO Women’s Tennis National Coach of the Year in May and accepted her award at the 2013 ITA Coaches Convention last week at the Waldorf Astoria in Naples, Fla. “It was great meeting and working with the best college coaches in the nation from all divisions, and I am even more motivated to coach a great team again this season,” Schantz said in a news release. The Aztecs went 13-4 last season and took second in the NJCAA Region I Championships.
- After a three-week break, the men’s basketball team returns to action Saturday for the Pima Invitational, a three-day tournament at PCC West. The Aztecs are 3-7 this season under coach
- Brian Peabody
- .
