Cowboy basketball opens season in Albuquerque versus Angelo State, Eastern N.M.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- It's been 620 days, but New Mexico Highlands men's basketball is back on the court 3 p.m. Saturday at The Pit in Albuquerque as the Cowboys open the 2021-22 season against Angelo State.

NMHU missed last season due to the pandemic, but is eager to return as a top team in the RMAC this season - thanks to returning three of five starters and several key reserve players from a team that went 18-10 overall (third-straight season over .500) and 13-9 in RMAC play in 2019-20 to qualify for the postseason for the second year in a row (NMHU won the RMAC Tournament in 2018-19 as the No. 7 seed).

The Cowboys return the conference's top scorer from the 2019-20 season in Sammy Barnes-Thompkins as the senior averaged 25 points per game, including an RMAC-best 3.1 3-pointers per game. He shot 39.7 percent from 3-point range and led the team in steals at 2.1 per game.

Overall as a team in 2019-20, the Cowboys and their up-tempo, pressing style led the RMAC in scoring (88.6 - five points better than the next closest team), turnover margin (plus-4.11 - more than two turnovers better than the next closest team) and 3-pointers made per game (10.6).

Another returning starter is point guard Desmond Carpenter. The senior from Albuquerque averaged 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Six-foot-10 senior forward Will Johnson also returns after starting all but two games for the Cowboys in 2019-20 - averaging 4.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.4 blocks per contest.

Six-foot-6 senior forward Darius Harrison (7.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg), 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Jalen Munn (5.1 ppg) and 6-foot junior guard Jaylen Domina-Lovato (3.2) played all 28 games in 2019-20 mostly coming off the bench while Mario Archuleta and Eric Sonnenberg also saw game action.

The Cowboys played an exhibition contest against New Mexico on Friday at The Pit - falling 101-72. Barnes-Thompkins scored 22 points for NMHU to lead the way while newcomer Marcus Brown (6-4, guard) added 13 and fellow newcomer Andre Adams (6-9, forward) had eight.

Following Saturday's matchup against Angelo State, the Cowboys return to action the next day againts Eastern New Mexico - again at The Pit in Albuquerque. Two days later on Tuesday, NMHU plays its home opener againts University of the Southwest at 6 p.m. at Wilson Complex and follows it up with a road game Wednesday at Northern New Mexico.