The Northern New Mexico College mens basketball team’s trip to Phoenix this past weekend helped the Eagles snap a six-game losing streak.
Northern (5-15) has traveled several miles across the country since the new year began, and after trips to Lawrence, Kan., and Denmark and Sumter, S.C. over the first 10 days of January, the Eagles headed southwest to Gilbert, Ariz. for a two-game stint against Park University Gilbert.
The trip featured two victories, as Northern was able to stave off the Buccaneers 84-81 in overtime on Jan. 17 and follow suit with an 81-75 victory on Jan. 18.
“Whenever you can win on the road it’s great because it’s hard on the road,” Northern head coach Ryan Cordova said. “It’s not like we’re going from Santa Fe to Albuquerque; we’re going from here to Phoenix and South Carolina and Kansas and all these places. You don’t have fans and the officiating is very different in other states; they were allowing a lot of physicality with the guards and my guards — especially my freshman — they had a lot of turnovers late in the (first) game.”
In the first matchup, Northern held an 11-point advantage with two minutes remaining in regulation, but Park was able to fight all the way back to tie the game and send it into overtime. The Buccaneers began their run with a 4-point play after a 3-point shooter was fouled and used physicality in their defense to force turnovers, while the Eagles missed front ends of 1-and-1s from the charity stripe.
“In overtime we did a good job of executing and knocking down shots,” Cordova said. “We got to the basket and made some plays, but with an 11-point lead, you got to do a better job of taking care of that basketball.”
In game two of the series, The Eagles stormed to a 45-30 lead at halftime before being outscored 45-36 over the final 20 minutes.
Jake Ellis had a game-high 28 points for the Buccaneers, while Northern had a hodgepodge of players score the ball, as six reached double-digits. Estevan Martinez led Northern with 16 points, Damione Thomas had 13, Jared Perez and Ricardo Zambrano each had 11 and Naquwan Solomon and Bruno Guedes had 10 apiece.
Northern used the recipe of running the fastbreak and forcing Ellis into early foul trouble to mount its lead in the first half that proved too much for Park to overcome.
“When they got him (Ellis) back in the second half that made a huge difference,” Cordova said. “He’s a big 6-7 kid who was a lefty; so, having him on the floor enabled them to score, but then he got into foul trouble again. It allowed us to pound the ball inside and let Naquwan go to the basket. Naquwan played great both days.”
In the second matchup, Northern outscored Park 24-12 in the paint, 16-7 in points off turnovers and 27-15 in bench points. The Eagles shot 39 percent for the game (23-of-59) and 44 percent from 3-point range, draining 11-of-25 shots.
The Eagles shot at an even more impressive rate from beyond the arc in the second half, hitting 7-of-14. Thomas and Zambrano each made three 3-pointers apiece.
After eight consecutive road games, the Eagles will play their final four games of the regular season at home inside Eagle Memorial Gymnasium. The first two will be at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday when Northern hosts SAGU American Indian College (Phoenix) for back-to-back games.
“SAGU is a good team and they will probably try to press us and beat us up a little bit because they won’t be as big,” Cordova said. “I expect them to play full-court man and full-court trap a little bit because they got some smaller, athletic guards that can score. So, we just have to be able to contain the basketball; I think if we can control the tempo of the game and stay within our offense and move the ball around and keep it in everybody’s hands, we should be able to get some good baskets out of it.”
There was also a big accomplishment for Northern off the court, as six players were named to the College’s Dean’s List for the 2019 fall semester. The players to receive the honor were Guedes, Zambrano, Victor Navajas de Faria, David Chaloupka, Reyes Ludi-Herrera and Omar Dominguez.
Each student-athlete achieved a 3.5 grade point average or higher while taking a minimum of 12-credit hours.