NMMI Sports Press
The Colt Basketball team won a hard-fought 54-47 battle with the visiting Tularosa Wildcats Tuesday night at Cahoon Armory, moving to 9-5 on the season and 3-0 at home.
The Wildcats, ranked second in Class 2A and 29th overall in the state, are the highest-ranked squad the Colts have played this season.
“This was just a really good win for us. Everybody contributed, everybody rose to the occasion,” said NMMI head coach Connor Williamson. “I told them it would be the most physical game they’ve played so far and it definitely was.”
The Colts had an efficient first half, going 12-for-26 from the field and 2-of-6 from behind the arc. In the second half, the Colts shot a lower percentage, but made up for it by creating turnovers and manufacturing more shot attempts.
Junior guard Lorenzo Peral and Junior small forward Diego Martinez led all scorers with 12 points apiece. Martinez had an all-around night, going 4-for-5 from the field, 3-of-4 from the free-throw line, collected six rebounds and had two assists.
The two newcomers to the team, junior forward Cole Seidenberger and senior forward Ian Thompson, each pulled down nine boards, with four each coming on the offensive end.
Seidenberger also scored nine points and shot 50 percent from the field, while making a team-high four trips to the charity stripe. Thompson showed off his range hitting two of the Colts’ five 3s.
“Those guys have been monsters in there. I think we’re going to start calling them the ‘Bash Brothers’,” Williamson said.
The Colts only trailed the Wildcats for the first two minutes of the game and took an 11-point lead into the locker room at halftime. NMMI maintained a double-digit lead for much of the third quarter, but the advantage dwindled to six as the Colts missed four 3-pointers in the final 1:30 of the period.
Sharp shooting from Peral and Martinez, along with strong paint play from Siedenberger helped the Colts build the lead back to nine, but a quick 5-0 run for the ‘Cats made it a four-point game with 30 seconds remaining in the contest.
NMMI handled the pressure and Peral and senior point guard Steven Griego were able to ice the game from the free-throw line.
Since the remodeled Cahoon Armory opened last season, the Colts are 8-2 at home with the only losses coming to 4A squads during the 22-23 season.
The Colts travel to Portales to take on the 4A Rams on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.