NMMI Sports Press
The Colt Basketball team kept themselves in the hunt for a district title with a 45-39 win over the visiting Ruidoso Warriors Friday evening at Cahoon Armory.
“It always feels great to win at home,” said NMMI head coach Connor Williamson. “That’s probably the best defensive game we’ve had, which is what we’ve been focused on the last couple days. We mixed up a lot of stuff, so it was good to see it come together.”
Junior point guard Steven Griego had a breakout game, going 4-for-9 from the field and 2-for-2 at the free-throw line to lead the Colts with 10 points. He also had seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end, two steals, two assists and a single turnover.
“Steven played better than he has all year and that’s what I’ve been expecting from him and hoping to see,” said Williamson. “So it was awesome for him to finally have a game like that. He did a lot of good things.”
But Griego wasn’t the only offensive threat for the Colts, with three other players scoring at least eight points, and six of the eight cadets that got on the court scored.
Senior guard Emi Herrera scored nine points, draining his only 3-pointer and all four freebies. Sophomore guard Diego Martinez had nine points, most of which came at the charity stripe where he went 7-for-11. Sophomore center Torty Kalu-Ulu was efficient, going 4-for-5 from the field to score eight points, with six big defensive rebounds to boot.
The score stayed tight in the first half with each team only able to muster a three-point lead, which the Institute held at halftime, 28-25. The fifth and final tie of the night came early in the third period, but the Colts slowly built up a five-point lead and took that into the final quarter up 38-33.
Griego found Kalu-Ulu under the basket for the first bucket of the fourth quarter, giving NMMI its largest lead of the night at seven points. Ruidoso would cut the lead to three with 2:40 left in the game, but Martinez got to the free-throw line twice in the final minutes, hitting 3-of-4 to ice the game.
It was the first district loss for the Warriors (3-1), the same team that defeated the Colts (2-2) by 11 on Jan. 31 in Ruidoso. With just two games remaining, the Warriors still control their destiny. NMMI needs to win out and needs Ruidoso to lose out. If the teams end up with the same district record, the Warriors would win the tiebreaker based on point differential.
“It’s anyone’s title to win at this point,” Williamson said. “All the teams are close, so it’s going to be a tight race for sure.”
The Colts travel to Tucumcari to face the Rattlers for the second time on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. NMMI won the previous matchup 37-35.