NMMI's Yanis Ndjonga goes up for two of his game-high 30 points, helping the Bronco men's basketball team open up the new year with a win over Strength N' Motion. (NMMI Sports Press Photo)
Posted: Jan 02, 2023
NMMI Sports Press
The Bronco Basketball team returned to action Tuesday night, rested but rusty after the holiday break, and gradually increased their lead over visiting Strength N Motion International on the way to a 76-61 victory.
"When you haven't played together in a month, this is what you get," said Broncos head coach Sean Schooley. "Defensively, we didn't do a very good job tonight. Our guards need to do a much better job of communicating. Fortunately, our bigs really stepped up, got a lot of rebounds and did some good stuff for us."
Freshman forward/center Yanis Ndjonga had a career night, scoring 30 points on 11-of-13 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He completed his double-double with 14 rebounds.
Freshman forward Quentin Bolton also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards. Freshman guard/forward Jonathan Burroughs chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds. Freshman forward/center Donovan Long had four points, all from the charity stripe, while doing the dirty work on defense he has become known for.
"I can't say enough about Yanis, Quentin and Donovan. They are great students and super high character guys," Schooley said. "We've got good guys, but we need some guys to come around and start helping on the outside."
The Broncos started slow as SNM, a college prep basketball academy in San Antonio founded by Spurs great George "Iceman" Gervin, took a five-point lead early in the first half, but the Broncos shook off the rust to lead 38-30 at halftime.
SNM came out hot in the second half, forcing turnovers and closing the gap to two points. But as the game wore on, the Broncos began to pull away, shooting almost 50 percent from the field for the half.
The Broncos have another tune up tomorrow at 1 p.m. against the Albuquerque Basketball Club prep squad before hitting the road to begin conference play at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas on Jan. 7.