NMMI Sports Press

The NMMI Colt basketball team evened up their record (2-2) with a win at home on Tuesday taking down the Loving Falcons for the second time this season, this time at home, 53-37.

It was both teams’ first game after the holiday break, and for the Falcons it showed, especially in the turnover column, with Loving giving away the ball 27 times.

NMMI head coach Connor Williamson was very pleased by how his Colts looked, however.

“Even though we’ve been off for a month, I think our guys looked better than when we last played,” said Williamson. “We played hard and shared the ball really well - you can tell that by how spread out the scoring was. I’m just really pleased with how we played tonight, especially coming out after the break.”

NMMI trailed just once, very early in the first period, but quickly bounced back to take a seven-point lead at the middle mark. Inside shots, set up by solid ball movement, along with penetration by veteran senior guards Jesus Luy and Hector Reyna, helped NMMI take and extend their lead throughout the contest.

The Colts won the first quarter 18-11, took the second 16-8 for a 32-19 lead at halftime, then coasted through the second half with plenty of playing time for the players on the bench.

Reyna was the top scorer of the game with 11 points, seven of which came from the charity stripe. Soph forward Daniel Xibille had nine, including a buzzer-beating trey to end the first period. Luy and senior forward Charles Lewis both dropped in eight; soph guard Ricardo Mata and junior post Luis Silva each had six; junior guard Quan Nguyen had three; and senior forward Jalil Brown had the final two.

Xibille and Lewis were the Colts’ top rebounders with seven apiece.

Next up for NMMI will be a game on Saturday, Jan. 19 at Roswell High vs. the Coyotes’ JV team – game time is set for 11:30 AM.