Strong second half leads Cowboys past Western Colorado

LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- The New Mexico Highlands men's basketball team used a strong second-half and another 30-plus point effort from Raquan Mitchell to pull away from Western Colorado for a 94-83 victory Saturday night at Wilson Complex.
 
The victory moves the Cowboys to 12-3 overall, and more importantly, to 7-2 in RMAC play – tied with Regis and UC Colorado Springs for second place, two games back of Colorado School of Mines. The Cowboys are also now 7-0 at home this season.
 
NMHU on Saturday held a 46-43 lead going into the second half before jumping right on the Mountaineers (3-12, 0-9) in the opening minute. Mitchell drained a 3-pointer on the Cowboys' first possession, and after a steal by Nnamdi Okoro, Mitchell drained another of his eight 3-pointers in the game as the lead was suddenly up to 52-43 with 19:13 left in the second half.
 
Mitchell finished with a team-best 36 points – his second 30-point effort in a row after dropping 34 on Colorado Mesa on Friday and his third in his last four games after scoring 40 against Regis on Jan. 4 on the road. He's increased his scoring average in his last four games from 17.4 to 20.7.
 
Another Mitchell 3-pointer at the 16:53 mark increased the NMHU lead to double figures for the first time in the game at 59-48. The lead hit 20-plus points when Jordan Jones hit a 3-pointer with 11:09 remaining at the game to make it 76-55 and hit a game-high 26 points at 81-55 after an Okoro layup made it 81-55 with 9:47 left in the game.
 
The Mountaineers didn't go away, however, as they cut the lead to 12 at 84-72 after going on a 17-3 run – but wouldn't get much closer than that before a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left by Western Colorado made the final margin 11.
 
To go along with his 36 points, Mitchell had four rebounds, two steals and two assists. Gerad Davis had 15 points, three assists and three steals, Jordan Jones had 13 points, four rebounds and three assists, Adrian LaFleur came off the bench for 12 points, Okoro had eight points and 14 rebounds while Desmond Carpenter led the team with five assists to go along with five points, three rebounds and two steals.
 
The Cowboys shot 47.1 percent from the field – including 39.4 percent from 3-point range (13-for-33) – while Western Colorado shot 50 percent and hit 14 of its 29 3-point attempts (48.3 percent). The Cowboys forced 18 turnovers in the game compared to committing just nine.
 
NMHU returns to action next week as they hit the road to take on Chadron State (Friday) and MSU Denver (Saturday).