Box Score SILVER CITY, N.M. – The Western New Mexico University men's basketball team stayed with No.4 University of Colorado-Colorado Springs for most of the first half before the Mountain Lions began to pull away for the 93-73 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory Saturday night.
NMU (0-10, 0-6 RMAC) stayed right with the top-ranked Mountain Lions (12-0, 6-0 RMAC) throughout most of the opening half.
Brandon Tanter (Long Beach, CA/Los Angeles Prep) had the Mustangs with a four-point lead just over a minute in at 6-2. After The Mountain Lions regained the lead,
Tyler Shea (Rancho Cucamunga, CA/Alta Loma) put WNMU back in front with a jumper in the paint. Shea was active on the boards in the first half pulling in 10 rebounds.
Terrez Scott (Santa Clarita, CA/Valencia) added a fastbreak layup off his own steal to give the Mustangs three-point lead, 14-11, near the midway point of the half.
Adam Kesler (Silver City, NM/Silver) had WNMU with their largest lead of the half at six after he drilled a three off the fastbreak. From that point on, UCCS buckled down and got the offense going closing the half on a 27-5 run to erase the deficit and take a 16-point lead, 38-22, into the locker room.
Steven Loucks (Yuma, AZ/Cibola) led the way in the first half for WNMU with seven points. Tanter added five and Scott with four. Derrick White tallied 12 and Alex Welsh added 10 points and 11 rebounds to lead UCCS. The Mountain Lions took advantage of strong numbers on points in the paint (24-6), points off turnovers (15-2) and fastbreak (18-9).
The Mountain Lions built the lead to 23 over six minutes into the second half, but the Mustangs mounted a run. WNMU would get back to within 17 a couple of times with the last coming at 6:32 on a three-pointer by
Adam Kesler (Silver City, NM/Silver). Kesler caught fire in the second half posting 15 points. The Mustangs would get it one point closer with just under two to play on a layup by
Wyatt Tuni (Chinle, AZ/Chinle ) before UCCS outscored the Mustangs by four over the remaining time to take the victory.
Scott led the way with 19 points, he also added team-highs in assists (6) and steals (5). Kesler chipped in 18 and Tanter reached double-figures with 10.
UCCS was led by White and Welsh. White just missed a triple-double with 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. He also added six blocks. Welsh went for a game-high 28 points and added a double-double with 14 rebounds. Shea tied Welsh for the high in rebounds as he also brought in 14.
UCCS made 34-of-73 (46.6), while WNMU was just under 40 making 26-of-66. WNMU made one more three-pointer (8-7) and UCCS held an 18-13 edge at the foul line. The Mountain Lions held the advantage on points in the paint (52-30), points off turnovers (18-10), second-chance (18-10) and fastbreak (36-27), while WNMU held a 27-25 bench point edge.
WNMU will return to action on Friday, January 2 at Regis beginning at 7 p.m.
