ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --- After struggling in the second half the day before, the New Mexico Highlands men's basketball team turned their around their second-half fortunes Saturday against Eastern New Mexico as the Cowboys outscored the Greyhounds 47-35 in the final 20 minutes to pull away for an 87-76 victory at Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit.
NMHU (1-1) trailed ENMU (0-2) 56-54 with 11:57 left in the game before a three-point play by
Gerad Davis at the 11:07 mark gave the Cowboys a 57-56 advantage – a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
It was the start of a 14-2 run for the Cowboys that included five points from
Jordan Jones and four from
Gerad Davis to increase the NMHU lead to 68-58 with 8:21 remaining.
The Greyhounds cut the lead to as little as five at 72-67 with 5:32 left, but an 11-3 run capped by a dagger of 3-pointer from
Raquan Mitchell with 2:31 remaining gave the Cowboys an 83-70 advantage. NMHU kept ENMU from getting any closer than seven points the rest of the way to pick up their first win of the season.
NMHU won the turnover (14-10), rebounding (46-43) and shooting (41.8 percent compared to 40 percent) battles against the Greyhounds on Saturday. NMHU also drained 10 3-pointers (shot 35.7 percent from beyond the arc) and went 11-for-12 from the free-throw line.
Jordan Jones, who played his high school basketball at Albuquerque's Sandia High School, led the team with 24 points, three steals and was 4-for-7 from 3-point range. Davis finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals,
D.J. Bustos had 13 points (11 coming in the first half to keep NMHU in the game), Mitchell finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and a team-high four assists while
Nnamdi Okoro had eight points and led the team with 11 rebounds and five blocks.
Isaiah Murphy led the Greyhounds with 17 points.
The Cowboys hit the road to take on Western New Mexico 6 p.m. Wednesday in Silver City.
