Balanced effort leads NMJC past McLennan at Region V Tournament

BROWNWOOD, Texas — The New Mexico Junior College men's basketball team had 11 players score – with four reaching double figures – and survived a late game-tying 3-point attempt by McLennan Community College during a 70-67 victory Thursday in the Region V Tournament quarterfinals at Brownwood Coliseum.

Cullen Russo paced the Thunderbirds (23-8) with 13 points while Rene Esparza and Kimani Jackson each had 12 points and Malique Trent had 10 as NMJC now faces WJCAC-foe South Plains 5 p.m. Friday in the semifinals (a team the T-Birds split with during the regular season).

NMJC held a 70-65 lead with 7.6 seconds left after Esparza drained a pair of free throws (NMJC went 15-for-17 from the charity stripe in the second half).

McLennan's Rashaan Surles quickly scored with 3.2 seconds remaining to cut the NMJC lead to 70-67 and the T-Birds turned it over without any time going off the clock to give the Highlanders a last chance.

However, Jalen Jones' 3-pointer at the buzzer came up short and NMJC survived and advanced to play the Texans.

The T-Birds jumped out to a 9-2 lead to start the game thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Trent and another by Karim Diop and held a 21-16 advantage before 6-0 run by McLennan (23-8) gave the Highlanders a 22-21 advantage.

McLennan led 36-30 with less than two minutes left in the half before a Tyler Blount 3-pointer and a free throw each by Desmond Medder and Trent cut the T-Bird deficit to 36-35 at the break.

NMJC rallied and took a 57-48 lead midway through the second half before McLennan went on a 16-4 run to regain the lead at 63-61 with 4:02 left in the contest.

McLennan still led 65-64 when Russo hit a pair of free throws with 1:56 left to give NMJC the lead for good as the T-Birds went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes.