Thunderbirds Rally Too Late Against Trojans

JASON FARMER/NEWS-SUN New Mexico Junior College's Tavion Robinson goes up for a dunk during the second half on the Thunderbirds' season-opener Thursday night at Caster Activity Center.

The New Mexico Junior College men's basketball team opened its season with a loss Thursday night as the Thunderbirds fell 80-69 to Trinidad State Junior College at Caster Activity Center on the first day of the Thunderbird Classic.

With the loss, NMJC starts the season at 0-1. The Thunderbirds will be back on the caster Activity Center hardwood tonight when they take on Jacksonville College at 8 p.m.

The Thunderbirds scored the first points of the game, starting the scoring with a three-pointer, but Trinidad State quickly answered right back to tie the game.

The Trojans had no trouble scoring on the Thunderbirds early on, building up a 12-point lead, but NMJC was able to chip away at it. Right before halftime, the T-Birds got back within one point on another trey. NMJC went into the break trailing 36-35.

Like it did in the first half, NMJC scored first in the second half, doing so on yet another trey, taking a 38-36 lead. But, like the first half, NMJC couldn't hold it.

With under eight minutes to play, Trinidad State and pushed its lead over the Thunderbirds to a game-high 18-points, 64-46. However, the T-Birds never gave up and once again chipped away at the deficit. With 6:26 to play, NMJC had cut its deficit to 11 points, 64-53.

After allowing Trinidad State make a run, the T-Birds got back to within 11 points with 2:41 to play on a pair of free throws from Franklyn Penn Jr.

With 0:58.6 to play, Marcell Haskett sank a trey from near the NMJC bench, getting the Thunderbirds within eight points, but NMJC would not get any closer.

New Mexico Junior College had two players score in double figures, one of whom also finished with a double-double. Tavion Robinson had 12 of his 19 points in the first half as well as seven of his 11 rebounds. The freshman also had a pair of crowd-pleasing dunks in the game, both coming in the second half. Haskett finished with 15 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Taj Simmons chipped in nine points, all coming from beyond the three-point arc while Paul Williams contributed eight points.