SILVER CITY, N.M. – Colorado Christian University came in shooting well from downtown on the season - that continued Saturday night. The Cougars drilled 12 three-pointers on their way to defeating the Western New Mexico University men's basketball team, 89-66, in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.

Zach McLemore and Andre Lane each connected on five three-pointers to power CCU (6-7, 2-5 RMAC) from downtown. Steven Loucks (Yuma, AZ/Cibola) had a strong game for WNMU (0-12, 0-7 RMAC) pouring in a team-best and season-high 17 points.
 
The Cougars never trailed after scoring the first points of the game 39 seconds in on a pair of free throws by Ty McGee. The Mustangs came back to tie the game twice, first at two on a layup by Loucks and again at four on a jumper in the paint by Makhtar Fall (Morocco/Ecole Al Jabr).
 
Fall added another jumper in the paint a few minutes later to bring WNMU back to within two before CCU began to take off. The Cougars went on a 9-0 run over the next three-plus minutes to push their lead into double-digits at 17-6.
 
Adam Kesler (Silver City, NM/Silver) came off the bench a little later on and provided an immediate spark hitting a pair of three-pointers that had the deficit back to eight at 23-15 with still 5:30 to play in the opening half.
 
Loucks helped keep the deficit at eight near the end of the half with a pair of foul shots before CCU closed the half on an 8-2 run to take a 38-24 lead into halftime.
 
The Mustangs would only get as close as 12 twice in the second half, the first coming a minute in on a three-pointer by Loucks and then on a Fall layup with 17:14 to play.
 
The story of the game was the hot shooting from the Cougars as they went 27-51 (53) from the field and 12-26 (46.2) from deep. They also added 23 free throws. WNMU ended up 20-52 (39) for the game after a strong second half going 12-24 (50). They made 7-22 (31.8) from three and added 19 free throws. Points off turnovers were also big with CCU holding a 28-13 advantage.
 
Loucks also added five rebounds to tie for the team lead with Emery Range (Grand Rapids, MI/Willow Canyon). Jordan Enriquez (El Paso, TX/Bel Air ) came off the bench to tally 12 points, hitting a pair from downtown. Daniel Van Den Kerkhof (New Zealand) made an impact off the bench posting three blocks.
 
McLemore and Lane on the strength of their three-point shooting ended up with 25 points and 19, respectively. McGee also reached double-figures with 16.
 
WNMU will hit the road this coming week as they will play at Western State Colorado University Friday and then at Colorado State Univeristy-Pueblo on Saturday with both games starting at 7:30 p.m.