NMMI Sports Press

The Broncos kept their small, but dedicated home crowd on the edge of their seats late in Sunday afternoon's contest against the visiting Trinidad State Trojans, cutting a 12-point disadvantage to five in the final minute of the game, but ultimately coming up short in a 68-58 loss.

"It's really hard when the ball doesn't go in the basket early for a young team and things just snowball," said NMMI head coach Sean Schooley. "At times we played really well and I thought we played good defense, but then we turn around and get in a big rush offensively instead of working the ball and giving them less possessions."

Sophomore forward Donovan Long and freshman guard Jonah Lopez led the Broncos with 12 points each. Long was efficient, going 3-of-5 from the field and 6-for-8 from the charity stripe. Lopez went 5-for-8 and hit two 3s in his 12 minutes off the bench.

"Donovan was big today, and I need those sophomores to play more minutes and give us more," Schooley said. "And I can't say enough about my New Mexico kids. They come in, do what they're supposed to do and they play hard."

Lopez, along with teammates Javier Mendoza and Jett Wyckoff, played with the Albuquerque Basketball Club Prep Academy, aka ABC Prep, before coming to the Institute. ABC was one of the five teams in town for the Bronco Classic, and they brought a player that Schooley was quite familiar with, his son Mitchell.

"The best part of the tournament was getting to sit and watch my kid play a couple games," he said. "A lot of times those JV and prep teams end up getting blown out, but they played some good games against each other and against some tough junior college teams. Overall I'd say it was a good show and everybody got something out of it."

The Broncos will take a much-deserved holiday break before returning to the hardwood on Jan. 5 against Strength 'N' Motion, a college prep academy from San Antonio, Texas.

"I'm proud of these guys. They've hung in there with a really tough pre-conference schedule, mostly on the road," said Schooley. "Hopefully they'll go home and stay in some sort of shape and be ready for conference, which is basically one long road trip."

In other Bronco Classic action, Trinidad upset No. 7 Odessa College 81-71 on Saturday and the Wranglers bounced back to top the Adams State JV 98-61 on Sunday. ABC also went 2-0, trouncing Adams 104-79 on Saturday and slipping past the University of the Southwest JV 83-78 Sunday.