Cowboys' season comes to an end in NCAA Tourney opener

CANYON, Texas --- The New Mexico Highlands men's basketball team couldn't recover from a cold start and early deficit to No. 3 West Texas A&M as the Cowboys' postseason run came to a close 109-95 Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament South Central Regional at First United Bank Center.
 
The Cowboys (22-10) started the game 1-for-13 from the field while the Buffs (32-3) were 7-for-11 and built a 22-4 lead with 13:56 remaining in the first half.
 
NMHU showed signs of getting back into the game as Raquan Mitchell – who had a career night for the Cowboys – drained back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to cut the WT lead to 26-15 with 12:04 remaining.
 
But that's as close as the Cowboys would get the rest of the game as the Buffs built a 61-38 lead at the half, and even though NMHU outscored WT 57-48 in the second half, never got closer than 12 points and saw its season come to a close.
 
Foul trouble plagued the Cowboys as leading scorer Gerad Davis and post presence Nnamdi Okoro eventually both fouled out playing a combined 46 minutes (the duo averages a combined 61 minutes per game). NMHU's press – which helped the Cowboys rank in the top five in the country in turnover margin – couldn't get the turnovers and quick buckets NMHU needed as the Cowboys forced WT into 11 turnovers while committing eight of their own.
 
It also didn't help the Buffs were hot from the field, shooting 53.4 percent in the game – including hitting 14 of 33 3-point attempts. NMHU shot 46.1 percent from the field, including 10-for-31 from 3-point range.
 
Mitchell set a career high and had a Cowboy season-best 42 points to go along with three steals, two rebounds and a block. The junior went 14-for-27 from the field, hit six 3-pointers and was 8-for-11 from the free throw line.
 
Sophomore Desmond Carpenter was also one of five Cowboys in double figures with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds and two steals, Davis in his final game as a Cowboy had 14 points, four rebounds and two steals, Adrian LaFleur had 11 points and Okoro finished his NMHU career with a double-double – 10 points and 11 rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
 
The Cowboys finish the season with the most wins in program history (22) along with winning the first RMAC Tournament championship in program history – becoming the first No. 7 seed in conference history to do so.
 
NMHU loses five seniors off of this team in Davis, Okoro, LaFleur, Jordan Jones and Mangisto Deng.
 
DAVIS, MITCHELL NAMED TO ALL-REGION TEAM
Earlier Friday the D2CCA South Central Regional men's basketball team was announced and both Gerad Davis and Raquan Mitchell were named to the second team.
 
Mitchell finished the season leading the team in scoring at 20.6 points per game while connecting on 103 3-pointers – the second-most in NMHU single-season history. Davis was just behind Mitchell in scoring at 20.5 points per game (three points in 32 games was the difference between the two) while shooting 51.4 percent from the field and a team-best 82.5 percent from the free throw line.