An improving Colt basketball team dropped their first district contest at home to Ruidoso, 48-40.
The game versus the Warriors was closer than many might expect, considering the difference in overall records between the two clubs: Ruidoso came in with an 11-5 mark, compared to the Colts’ 2-7 count.
The Warriors’ full-court press was easily broken by NMMI for most of the game, but the Colts had trouble finishing up on the other end of the court, missing several easy buckets in the paint.
“I still think we are improving and getting better, but we still have a long way to go,” said head Colt coach Sean Schooley. “Hopefully this shows our guys that we can play in this district and compete.”
Ruidoso won the first two quarters of play, taking the first period by two, 10-8, then the second by three, 9-6, giving them a 5-point lead at the end of the half.
NMMI bounced back in the third, cutting the Warrior lead to three, thanks in part to a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Jesus Najar. Najar got the inside pass from teammate Nigel Grubbs, made a good post-up move, got the bucket and the foul, then hit the ‘and one’ to make it 28-25, just second before the end of the third.
Despite the Warriors starting the fourth with a pair of long-range threes by Brady Mendez, the Colts kept it close, battling back to within four points twice before allowing Ruidoso a late run for the win.
“I want to say that I’m proud of our guys for hanging in there,” said Schooley. “When you turn the ball over 20 times you should probably get beat by a lot more than we did and that’s not taking anything away from Ruidoso. We just didn’t take care of the ball when we needed to.”
Grubbs was the top scorer for the Institute, and got the double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Close behind was teammate Chris Blair with 10 points and 8 boards.
“You have to win the rebounding war,” finished Schooley. If Nigel and Blair will do that for us every night, they will give us a chance to be competitive.”
Before their next district contest, the Colts will travel down to Hagerman for a rematch of the third place game at the Dexter Invitational on Thursday, Jan. 18; the Bobcats won that previous match-up, 40-28.
NMMI’s next district game will be at home on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 4:00 P.M. versus Hope Christian.