Cowboys win streak snapped at seven, fall at Dixie St.

ST. GEORGE, Utah --- Shooting woes and foul trouble for its top scorer was the recipe to break the New Mexico Highlands men's basketball team's seven-game winning streak as the Cowboys fell on the road to Dixie State 83-65 Friday night at Burns Arena.
 
The Cowboys (7-2 overall, 3-1 RMAC) shot 32.8 percent from the field – by far its worst performance shooting from the field this season (NMHU shot 39.7 percent its season-opening loss against Western New Mexico, but shot 50 percent plus in five if its next seven games before Friday). Couple that with leading scorer Gerad Davis being in foul trouble throughout and being limited to 14 minutes (11 of those in the second half when the Cowboys were down double figures) and it was far from a good night for a team that ranked eighth in the NCAA Division II in scoring heading into the contest at 92.3 points per game.
 
The Cowboys came out strong as back-to-back 3-pointers by Raquan Mitchell and Jordan Jones gave NMHU a 12-5 lead on Dixie State (4-3, 2-2) less than three minutes into the first half.
 
But NMHU was outscored 37-16 over the next 14 minutes before back-to-back 3-pointers from Desmond Carpenter and Mitchell in the final minute of the first half cut NMHU's halftime deficit to 42-34 as it appeared the Cowboys had momentum going into the second half – despite Davis picking up three fouls in just three minutes of play in the first half.
 
The Trailblazers, however, opened the second half on a 9-0 run capped by a Matt Conway 3-pointer with 18:23 remaining to make it 51-34. The Cowboys closed it back to 10 points after a Mitchell 3-pointer at the 16:07 mark made it 51-41, but that's as close as NMHU got the rest of the way as it had its longest win streak since the 2009-10 season snapped.
 
Mitchell paced the Cowboys with 21 points (going 5-for-12 from 3-point range) while Davis finished with 14 points (all in the second half and in the final 10 minutes of the game) and Jordan Jones had 10 points. Carpenter led the Cowboys with four steals and three assists to go along with six points.
 
NMHU was beat on the glass 55-25 and didn't do itself any favors by going 8-for-17 from the free throw line. The Cowboys did force 24 turnovers compared to committing just 12, but only outscored the Trailblazers 20-18 on points off turnovers.
 
Conway led Dixie State with 17 points while Dub Price had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The Cowboys look to get back on track 7:30 p.m. Saturday when they take on Westminster in Salt Lake City.