Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press
It's March and there's plenty of madness going on in the junior college basketball ranks as the regular season slowly comes to a conclusion.
With a pack of rowdy cadets in attendance, the New Mexico Military Institute Broncos pulled out a heart-pounding 86-85 victory over Western Texas College on Thursday night at the Godfrey Athletic Center.
"I've never had a team like this ever and I've had some great ones but I've never had one as quite as emotionally high strung and able to fight through it," said NMMI head coach Sean Schooley. "It's a great team effort. We fought back like we normally do but we got to try to maintain that on a steady level."
Trailing by as much as 10 points in the second half, NMMI had to battle back once again.
The rally began with 9:15 left in the contest when John Mapiou landed a shot in the paint to cut the deficit down to three.
In a split second, the Broncos took a one-point lead after Khaleb Wilson-Rouse made four points in under two minutes.
Western Texas (9-7, 4-7) later tied the game after Lucas Kroft made one of two free throws with 7:02 on the clock.
In the double bonus since the 11:20 mark, the Westerners made some more key free throws down the stretch to eventually take a five-point lead before NMMI entered the double bonus.
A three-pointer by Wilson-Rouse later gave the Broncos a two-point lead with 3:38 remaining.
NMMI (6-8, 5-6) held a three-point lead before Western Texas came back to tie the game at 83-83 with less than 30 seconds left.
Nicolas Girondin landed a pair of key free throws while Jordan Nelson made a clutch layup to put the Broncos back out in front by three.
A missed three-pointer by the Westerners was rebounded by Dawson John but all that come out of the small comeback was a shot in the paint which cut the deficit to one with 29 seconds on the clock.
Wilson-Rouse, who entered the night ranking fourth in the NJCAA averaging 22.8 points per game, had another solid showing, scoring 31 points with four rebounds, three 3-pointers, a steal and an assist.
He went a perfect 10 for 10 from the free throw line while shooting 9 of 14 from the field.
Mapiou had a big night tallying 18 points while Nelson finished with 12 points and two assists.
Luis Riascos Varon was the fourth NMMI player to score double-digit figures with 10 points and Jeremiah Barr chipped in with seven points, six rebounds and two assists.
Furaha Cadeaux de Dieu dominated the glass grabbing 10 boards while recording two steals.
The Broncos shot 21 of 28 from the charity stripe while landing five 3-pointers.
Western Texas had five players in double digits as Isaac Mushila and CJ Smith each had 20 points while Lorenzo Downey added with 14.
Deng Mayar chipped in with 12 points and Lucas Kroft had 10.
Both teams equally grabbed 34 rebounds. The Westerners shot 23 of 28 from the free throw line.
NMMI has now entered fourth place in the latest Western Junior College Athletic Conference standings. The Broncos make their final road trip of the season to Clarendon at 2 p.m. Saturday before wrapping up with two games at home against Odessa College and Howard College.
"We just want to keep climbing as much as we can," Schooley added. "(We) showed character and a lot of fight, and really played well together tonight. This group is unique."