Las Vegas, New Mexico - The Cowboys have their 2025-26 home opener on Friday afternoon as they welcome Western New Mexico to historic Las Vegas. Tip-off is set for 3:00 pm. NMHU was in Lawton, Oklahoma on Tuesday night where they dropped an 89-81 contest to Cameron University despite a game high 21 points from
Ibrahima Sacko.
COACH SETTEMBRE: Coach Settembre makes his NMHU debut this weekend in Billings. Settembre brings an impressive resume to the helm of the Cowboys having served as an assistant coach at Tarleton State, New Mexico State, and Coastal Carolina. He was the head coach at Tallahassee Community College where he led his teams to back-to-back conference championships and a 46-9 record. Settembre's climb up the DI ranks was in part facilitated by one of the sport's legends. He is a 2012 graduate of Syracuse and served as a student manager under Jim Boeheim.
RMAC COACHES POLL: New Mexico Highlands men's basketball was picked 11th in the 2025-26 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll that was released last month. The Cowboys were 12-16 overall and 5-15 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference last season.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION: Western New Mexico enters play on Saturday at 4-1 overall after winning at Colorado Christian 85-79 on Wednesday evening. WNMU was picked 15th in the Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll. The Mustangs topped the Cowboys 70-55 on November 14th in Portales in game one of the South Central Regional Challenge. Mark Bunker, an Arizona State graduate, is in his third season as the head coach of the Mustangs. The Cowboys hold a 7-3 edge in the last 10 games played between the two teams.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Through six games
Marcus Pierce leads the Cowboys in scoring at 13.3 points per game. Also in double-figures are
Ibrahima Sacko (12.5 points per game),
Robert Dix (10.3/game), and
Dontae Walker (10.2/game).
Nikk Williams is ninth in the RMAC at 6.8 rebounds per game.
Marcus Pierce is tenth in the RMAC in free throw percentage at 84.6%.
Dontae Walker is third in the RMAC with 1.8 steals per game.
Latavious Morris is ninth in the RMAC with 1.5 steals.
TEST THEM COWBOYS: Coach Settembre assembled a challenging non-conference schedule of games this season. The Cowboys play three Division I opponents; North Texas, New Mexico State, and New Mexico.
The season kicked-off with games against Montana State-Billings, Angelo State, and Central Missouri last weekend at the D2CCA Tipoff Classic at The Trailhead last weekend in Billings, Montana. Also on the schedule are dates with Western New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico, and Cameron from the Lone Star Conference.
The Cowboys will have played eight games in four different states before they play their home opener in historic Las Vegas on November 28th against Western New Mexico. The 2025-26 RMAC season kicks off on December 4th when the Cowboys travel to Denver to play Regis University.
ON THE AIR: Friday's game will be broadcast on the
RMAC Network.
UP NEXT: The Cowboys play their third exhibition game of the season on Monday night at the University of New Mexico. Game time at The Pit is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
CLEAR BAG POLICY: NMHU has implemented a
Clear Bag Policy for all on-campus events.
GET YOUR TICKETS: Season and single game tickets for NMHU basketball are on sale now and can be purchased on-line at
NMHUAthletics.com/Tickets.
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