Yuma News Now

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College announced today that a top member of Cibola High School’s boys’ basketball program has officially signed his letter of intent to attend AWC for the 2008-09 school year and play basketball for the Matadors’ men’s basketball team this winter. 

 

It’s appropriate that Downing signed his letter of intent during the Matador Basketball Camp at ‘The House’, since that’s where he’s spent at least one week of every summer since Zac was 8 years old. Downing began getting basketball camp instruction from AWC Men’s Head Basketball Coach Kelly Green since 1998, when Green had only been at AWC for one year. Downing immediately impressed Green from that first camp with his maturity and basketball savvy, so much so that after Zac’s 4_th year at the camp, Green made Downing an camp coach. Of course, Green is far from the only person that Downing has impressed on the basketball court the last few years. The 6’5”, 200-pound guard/forward has been an integral part of the success of the Cibola Raiders’ boys’ basketball program the last three years. Downing first earned a varsity letter as a sophomore under Cibola Head Coach Kevin Gettings, and officially ‘introduced’ himself to the high school masses during Cibola’s 2005 Southwest Rotary Classic Holiday Tournament when his last-second shot in the tournament semifinals gave the Raiders an important win over Westview. Downing emerged as a team leader by the end of his sophomore campaign, and helped lead the Raiders to the 2006 Gila Valley Region Championship Game. That set the stage for a banner junior season for Downing, who flourished under first-year Raiders’ Head Coach Gary Abercrombie. Downing took an inexperienced 2006-07 Raiders’ squad and put them on his shoulders, leading them once again within one game of the Gila Valley Region title. Downing averaged nearly 20 points per game as a junior, and earned The Sun/Yuma Rotary Club's 2006-07 Boys Basketball Player of the Year Award in the process. Last season, Zac grew two inches and teamed with Raiders’ guard Jeff Aldama to make a formidable one-two punch for the Raiders. Downing started the season hot and stayed consistent all the way up to the Raiders’ 3^rd straight appearance in the Gila Valley Region Championship. Downing saved one of his best games of his career for his final curtain call, scoring 25 points (16 after halftime) and pulling down 12 rebounds against Kofa in the Region Finals. As a senior, Downing averaged 20.5 points and 11.7 boards per contest, earning 1^st Team All-Gila Valley Region honors.