T-Birds' late rally falls short against Odessa

ODESSA, Texas — The New Mexico Junior College men's basketball team once again had a chance for late-game heroics Thursday against Odessa College after winning its last two contests via buzzer beaters.

However this time instead of coming up with a clutch play, the T-Birds with a chance to tie it with 3.0 seconds left and down 77-74 turned the ball over as NMJC's eight-game winning streak was snapped by the Wranglers.

The T-Birds trailed 77-72 with less than 15 seconds left when Cullen Russo scored with 9.4 remaining to cut the Odessa lead to 77-74.

NMJC used a full-court press to force its second straight turnovers and Rene Esparza took a 3-pointer as the clock winded down, but his shot was off the mark.

However, the T-Birds grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 3.0 seconds left to set up a play.

The ball got in to Jeremy Postell on the wing, but the NMJC guard was called for traveling on his pump fake and the T-Birds (20-7, 9-4) never got the ball back.

NMJC coach James Miller said he was proud of his team fighting back to get into the game, but they probably wouldn't have been in that position if they played that way for the entire game.

"We didn't play very well the majority of the game and we just didn't defend as well as we have the last month or so," Miller said. "Give credit to Odessa, they hit some shots and made some plays. But I'm proud of our guys battling back in the last three minutes when they could've given up.

"But if we played that way for the first 37 minutes, it might've been a different game."

NMJC trailed for the entirety of the second half after a 13-2 run late in the first half gave Odessa a 33-25 lead at the break.

Back-to-back buckets by Ray Barreno helped cut the Odessa (19-7, 7-6) halftime lead to three points at 40-37 with 16:36 left in the second half.

But three straight Odessa College 3-pointers (two by Willie Connor) with only a Desmond Medder free throw for the T-Birds increased the Wrangler lead to 49-38 with 14:10 left.

NMJC closed in to within six after Malique Trent split a pair of free throws to make it 55-49 with 8:39 left.

However Odessa went on an 8-0 run capped by a Connor bucket to push the Wrangler lead to 63-49 with 5:46 remaining.

Russo led NMJC with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Trent had 15 points and Ruben Macias had 10.

Conner led Odessa with 16 points while Jaylen Brantly added 14.

The T-Birds struggled from the field, shooting just 36.8 percent in the game while Odessa College shot 43.4 percent.

NMJC with the loss is now a game-and-a-half back of South Plains and Howard for the conference lead and two games up on Midland and Odessa – who are tied for the fourth and final spot for the Region V Tournament with three games remaining.

NMJC travels to take on Midland on Monday.