Win puts T-Birds one game out of first place
January 22, 2020

Win puts T-Birds one game out of first place

JASON FARMER
January 22, 2020

 

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JASON FARMER/NEWS-SUN   Terence Lewis sets himself to take a shot after grabbing an offensive rebound Monday night during the first half of NMJC's win over Frank Phillips College.

 

The New Mexico Junior College men's basketball team jumped out to a 6-0 lead Monday night and never trailed as the Thunderbirds soared to victory, beating Frank Phillips College 82-55 in Caster Activity Center.

The win was even bigger considering that Western Junior College Athletic Conference leader Clarendon College lost to Odessa early in the day.

With the win, NMJC improves to 15-6 on the season and moves to 5-2 in WJCAC action. The win, combined with Clarendon College's loss to Odessa College, means the T-Birds are now one game out of first place in the WJCAC.

"I was proud of our guys and their effort," NMJC coach Luke Adams said. "Our guys understand how tough this conference and league is. We know that every game is going to be a dogfight and that we have to out tough them and out play them and we did that tonight. They are also aware that anyone can get beat by anyone at anytime. New Mexico Military beat South Plains while we were on the road and Clarendon losing to Odessa."

The T-Birds dominated the game all night.

New Mexico Junior College scored a quick six points to take the lead, but Frank Phillips soon cut the T-Birds' lead in half with a trey. That would be as close as the Plainsmen would get.

With 13:40 left in the first half, Frank Phillips cut NMJC's lead back down to six points at 15-9. However, NMJC then went on an 11-0 run to put some distance between the T-Birds and the Plainsmen, going up 26-9.

Over the rest of the opening half, NMJC and Frank Phillips seemingly traded buckets as the T-Birds went into halftime with a 44-22 lead over the Plainsmen.

"I give credit to our guys," Adams said. "They played hard, competed, followed the game plan and executed more offensively."

Scoring was closer in the second half, but NMJC still led the way. The T-Birds outscored Frank Phillips 38-33 over the final 20 minutes of action.

The T-Birds had 10 players score and four in double figures. NMJC also doubled up Frank Phillips in the rebound column, grabbing 51 boards to the Plainsmen's 25.

Gideon George had a double-double for the T-Birds as he led all scorers with 17 points and 18 rebounds. Terence Lewis finished with 16 points while Mareng Gatkuoth and Keaton Hervey each chipped in 13.

"He is starting to get more healthy," Adams said of George. "He has had a lot of bad luck. He hurt his ankle earlier when he played Odessa and has been out for about a month. He has just slowly started to come back. Today we started him and I don't know if that gave him confidence or he just went out there and played. It was good to see him looking like his old self."

Atem Chol had six, including a crowd-pleasing dunk while Mohammed Jafari contributed five. Joao Camargo and Matthew Strange each had four points while Jerry N'sabwa and Antonio Bridy both had two points.

Next up for NMJC is a road trip to Midland College on Monday.