Las Vegas, New Mexico - Senior
Kyrie Thomas drained a three point shot as time expired in overtime to give New Mexico Highlands a 97-96 win in overtime on Saturday evening over Chadron State. The win improved the Cowboys to 8-8 overall and 1-7 in conference play.
With the visiting Eagles holding a 96-94 as time wound down in overtime,
Kenard Richardson grabbed an offensive rebound and found Thomas who drained the game winner from 23 feet out. The celebration would have to wait, however, as the officiating crew reviewed the play for an extended period of time before signaling the shot by Thomas was good.
The Cowboys outscored the Eagles 20-10 in the final 5:06 of the second half to force overtime.
"I'm just happy for the guys, it's hard to keep playing hard and have belief when things aren't going your way," said Head Coach
Mike Dominguez after the win. "They fought back and hopefully this is something we can build on going forward."
Kenard Richardson recorded a double-double as he had a team high 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Blessin Kimble had 18 points,
KJ LaMonte added 16,
Nathan Hasberry went for 13 points and
Delon McCloud scored 11.
Ezzy Dawson had 10 rebounds.
NMHU was 43.0% from the floor and a season's best 85.7% (18-21) from the free throw line. They out-rebounded the Eagles 40-30.
The Cowboys are now 8-2 in their last ten games against Chadron State.
NMHU now heads out for five consecutive games away from home starting with a Thursday night contest at UCCS. The next home game is on Saturday, February 8th, against Fort Lewis.
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