Denver, Colorado - On a chilly night in the Regis Field House, the Cowboys turned up the defensive pressure on the way to their first win of the season, a 72-57 victory over the Rangers. New Mexico Highlands improves to 1–7 overall and 1–0 in RMAC play, while Regis drops to 1–5 and 0–1 in the conference.
Thursday's win was fueled by the Cowboys' strongest defensive performance of the season, as they held the Rangers to just 57 points on 39.6% shooting - both season bests.
With the homesteading Rangers leading 26-21 at the 8:44 mark of the opening half, the Cowboys went on a 12-6 run to take a 39-32 lead at the half.
The second half was all Cowboys as they shot 50% from the floor and led by as many as 20 points en route to the 15 win.
Marcus Pierce led the Cowboys with 16 points on a 7-11 shooting effort.
BJ Comer and
Caileb Parham scored 12 and 10 points respectively.
Nikk Williams and
Wesley Isoje each grabbed nine rebounds.
Thursday's win was
Zach Settembre's first as head coach at New Mexico Highlands.
"I'm really proud of our team's resiliency so far this season. No one in Division II across the country has played as tough a schedule as our guys have. Three Division I road games, travel with incredibly short turnaround, and yet every single day they bring their hard hat ready to work, learn, and progress. While we know we have a difficult road ahead with three more RMAC games in the next seven days including the next two on the road, I am confident our guys will continue to fight, scrap, and compete," said Settembre after Thursday's win. "Our early season record is not indicative of what we have or what we will become, and tonight we are excited and thrilled to have already matched the conference road win total from last season. Saturday will be another huge test, and we are excited for the challenge."
Up next is a date at the Colorado School of Mines on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off in Golden is at 3:00 pm.
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