A lot can change in 24 hours and the Northern New Mexico College mens basketball team learned that firsthand.
The Eagles had their way with Our Lady of the Lake University at home Dec. 1, blowing out the Saints 103-70.
The teams suited up again for a back-to-back and on Dec. 2, the Saints turned things around and walked away with an 95-89 victory.
Our Lady was out rebounded by Northern by 29 in the first matchup, but decreased that margin to four in the second game. They also benefited from 13 turnovers and 12 missed free throws from the Eagles.
“We only out rebounded them by four today and they did a better job of getting their offense boards,” Northern head coach Ryan Cordova said. “They shot better today. Yesterday, they didn’t shoot that well from the 3-point line. Tonight they shot 50 percent.”
The Saints shot 15-of-30 from beyond the arch and benefited from the stroke of Zachary Mucha — an El Paso, Texas product that Cordova tried to recruit to Northern. By himself, Mucha was 6-of-11 from 3-point range and finished with 26 points and eight rebounds.
Northern looked to be off to another huge night after the scoring was started off by an alley-oop from Bryce Simmons to Esteban Archuleta, which was the beginning of a 9-0 scoring run to start the game.
Our Lady fell behind by as many as 11 points in the first half but went on an 8-0 run behind 3-pointers from Mucha and Michael Saladin later in the half to get ahead 39-34, and the lead was the biggest in the first half for the Saints. Northern would come back with five straight of their own to tie it at 39. Our lady took a 44-42 lead into the break.
“When you beat a team by 30, you got to come out the next night and work hard in the first five to 10 minutes to get ahead,” Cordova said. “We never did that. We’d get up and then they’d get right back in the game.”
Mucha came out in the second half and hit three more 3-pointers early and his third put the Saints ahead 59-54 with 14:40 left.
The second half was tight most of the way, but Our Lady was able to separate behind more 3-pointers and Northern turnovers, which started to surface again late after the Eagles did a better job at protecting the ball early in the second half.
Trailing 88-84 with 54 seconds remaining, Lennox Jones Jr. picked up a huge offensive rebound and put back for the Saints to go ahead 90-84. Naquwan Solomon would come back with a layup on the other end, but Our Lady stayed consistent at the free throw line the rest of the way to hold off the Eagles’ comeback attempt.
“They shared the ball today,” Cordova said. “Yesterday, our defense frustrated them and we had a lot more energy. Today, we came out complacent and you can’t come out complacent. I tell these guys all the time, you have to win humbly and lose gracefully and if you go in thinking you’re going to smoke these guys, then that’s just not going to happen.”
Solomon had a game-high 28 points after shooting 10-of-13 from the field. Simmons extended his streak of scoring in double-digits to nine games with 12 after a slow start to the season. Seth Warfield was the third-leading scorer with 10 off the bench.
Ultimately, the missed free throws and turnovers were too much to overcome for the Eagles in the second game of the back-to-back.
“12 free throws were left (out there) and we missed four front ends of 1-and-1s,” Cordova said. “That’s potentially another four. So 16 points left at the free throw line. That’s a lot of points left at the free throw line. We’re halfway through the season and should be shooting 80 percent.”
The Eagles shot 58 percent from the line in the second game versus 72 percent in the first. They also made twice as many 3-pointers in the win against Our Lady.
Northern traveled to Western New Mexico University Tuesday, but those results were not available by press time. They will begin Association of Independent Institutions conference play in a two-game road trip at the College of the Ozarks (8-3 overall) Dec. 7-8.
“If we even come out of that with a split, then I consider that a win,” Cordova said. “If we split, I’ll be happy. If we get two out of that, I’ll be really happy. That bumps you up right away to the top of the conference if we take two out there. It’s still the middle of the season and some teams are gonna get better and some teams are gonna get worse, we just got to make sure we’re not the team getting worse.”
The Northern women were scheduled to play Dec. 2 against Adams State in what the College was calling a “weekend of basketball,” but in a bizarre scheduling conflict, the game was cancelled.
There was confusion between the two schools and the scheduled game was actually set for the 2019-20 season.