Silver City Sports

The Mustangs will kick off the weekend’s action tonight facing the Mountain Lions of UC Colorado Springs on Drag’s Court. Springs enters the game having lost 3 in a row and 4 of their last 5. This is a streaky team; they had won 5 in row after starting off the season losing 6 in a row. This most recent losing streak included a sold performance against Metro (11 pt loss) but they followed that up last weekend with a 30 point home loss to Kearney and a 6 pt home loss to Chadron State. This will be the rematch after Springs won the first game 71-63; a night that saw the Mustangs have their worst shooting performance of the season.

WNMU hot only 31% from the floor on the night and was dismal from beyond the arc, hitting only 2 of 17 three point attempts. T. J. and Chad were a combined 5-27 on the night. Chris Mason did have a good game as he was 6-12 adn lead the Stangs in scoring with 16 points. Brelan Berry added 8 points and 9 rebounds. Despite the poor shooting the Mustangs had a chance to win the game but a couple of missed assignments on the offensive end on consecutive plays cost the Stangs a chance to take the lead and Springs held on for the win.

The Mountain Lions are actually a pretty decent road team, 3-4 on the road in the conference with their losses coming to the better RMAC teams and they’ve been beating the lesser teams. UCCS scores about 72 a game and gives up about 77. They shoot the ball solidly at 41% and 38% from downtown. They don’t grab a lot of rebounds and turn the ball over 15 times a game. But here’s the dangerous part; they can get hot from outside and start nailing the three point shot. There aren’t any consistently outstanding scorers on this team, 4 guys are averaging 10 to 12 pts a game in conference play with with three more at 8 or 9 pts a game. Talk about balanced scoring.

Darius Pardner, 5-9 Fr guard, leads the way in scoring for UCCS with 12 a game. Unusual for a true freshman and a point guard. While he will penetrate to set up their offense, he likes to shoot from downtown and hits about 42% of his long shots. He can be streaky but when he’s on he’s dangerous and has led the team in scoring 5 times this season. George Pollard, 5-8 Jr guard, is a JC transfer who also likes to shoot from outside. He’s taken more 3 point shots than 2 point attempts hitting about 40%. He also leads the team in assists with just over 2 a game. Jeff Isaac, 6-7 Sr center, is a very athletic player. He’s been on a roll lately having led the Mountain Lions in scoring the last 3 games with 15, 19 & 19; all losses. He also leads the team in rebounding with 4 a game but the dangerous thing about him is he gets a lot of his points off of offensive rebounds.

This is a team that goes deep into their bench; no one is averaging more than 25 minutes a game except for Pollard in conference play; he’s staying on the floor about 34 minutes a game. His quickness, along with that of Pardner may be a problem for the Mustangs. Although in the first game the Mustangs only turned the ball over 12 times, the UCCS did get 13 steals on the night. One player to watch is Kyle Clark, 6-11 Jr center. The JC transfer is only playing about 15 minutes a game but likes to hit the offense boards as well, he’s got 29 offense rebounds and 43 defensive in conference play. He doesn’t shoot a lot but if the Mustangs don’t box out, he could have a big night.

WNMU, it’s simple. Play like they did on Saturday night against Highlands. Solid defense holding UCCS to about 70 points and out rebound the Mountain Lions. T. J. will need to get off to another hot start, on Saturday he hit his first 5 shots. Chad has started to come on in the second half, much like T. J. was earlier this season. We convinced T. J. that he was playing 2 second halves now it’s time to convince Chad. Although much of Chad’s contribution will come defensively and on the boards as well. Lucio and Chris will need to continue their solid scoring and rebounding while Ryan and Juan will need to protect the ball at the point. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Either way it’s going to be a rocking time on Drag’s Court tonight at 7:30, what else are you going to do?

Coach Coleman said in the post game interview last week that the team can’t think about what was or should have been and must only focus on what is in front of them. That’s the right philosophy for a coach and the team. For pundits however, well we should have swept UC-Colorado Springs and CSU-Pueblo on the road earlier this season. As it turned out the Stangs lost both of those games and that was a harbinger of things to come. Now the team has another shot at the Mountain Lions and Thunderwolves with all three teams tied in the RMAC standings at 6-7. To say the games this weekend are important is an understatement. Four teams, including the Stangs, are tied for the last two playoff spots and 2 teams are just one game behind and two teams just one game ahead. Yeah, these are big games.

CSU Pueblo comes into Friday’s game having lost 3 of their last 5 games including a 20 point loss to #3 Metro State and an 18 point drubbing by Nebraska Kearney; both home games for CSUP. Their only wins came against Chadron and Regis; two teams bringing up the rear of the RMAC. But don’t count out the T-Wolves. In the first match between these two teams, a 2 point Mustang loss, WNMU shot the ball very well, hitting 51% of their shots including 53% from downtown. CSUP couldn’t match that hot shooting. But the Mustangs turned it over 22 times and Pueblo got 14 steals limiting the Mustangs to only 47 FG attempts compared to Pueblo’s 88 shot attempts. 37% of 88 is more than 51% of 47 for you NM Highlands graduates.

7 players scored between 7 and 12 points for the T-Wolves on December 16 and that’s pretty much been the modus operandi for Pueblo this season; a balanced scoring attack. Arden Dennis, 6-1 JR guard, leads the balanced scoring with 15 pts a game. He’s had a season high of 31 pts against Western State. Dennis is a dangerous player able to create shots off the dribble and hit the long ball; he is making 50% of his shots in conference play. Andre Martin, 6-4 SR guard, has stepped up his scoring this season; the defensive stalwart is also averaging 15 pts in conference games this season. He’s a penetrator with the ball and leads the team in steals and rebounding. Martin has had 4+ steals in 3 different games this season and will put pressure on Ryan Crane and Juan Suarez at the point. Ryan Arel, 6-2 JR guard, has come on of late. The JC transfer is only averaging 5 pts a game in conference play but has led the Pack in scoring the last 2 games notching 20 points against Chadron and 15 against Kearney. The Mustangs will have to continue to play solid defense to prevent one player from having a career night.

Overall the T-Wolves don’t have a lot of size that could hurt the Mustangs; A. J. Kapanoske is 6-8 245 lbs similar to the guy from Chadron that went off for 30 against the Mustangs. But Coach Coleman believes that was an aberration as the Stangs have held much better players of similar size to below average games. Pueblo averages about 69 points a game while giving up 68; the 69 is right where the Stangs want to keep them. CSUP is a good 2 point shooting team, they get to the basket often using penetration and motion hitting 45% of those shots. From beyond the arc they hit only 33%. Pueblo is also being out rebounded by their opponents but only turns the ball over 13 times a game compared to creating 17 turnovers.

The Mustangs have won 5 in a row on Drag’s Court due to primarily to playing solid defense. The Stangs are allowing only 64 pts a game at home, 7 points below their overall season average. The offense is heating up behind T. J. Riley’s 23 pts per game average in the last 6 games while Chad Carter is adding 15 pts a game and 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals per game. True Freshman Chris Mason is coming on offensively for the purple and gold averaging 9 pts a game but hitting double figures in the last 3 games. JR Lucio Luttrell is starting to regain his shooting touch and giving the Mustangs another outside threat to go with his solid defensive play. Juan Suarez has also given the Stangs a speedy threat handling the ball and drawing defenses inside.

The Mustangs have a lot of hopes for this weekend; we’ll see if they can deliver. The Mustangs have returned the excitement to Drag’s Court. The crowds have been loud and exciting helping the Mustangs to control home court. Friday and Saturday will be no different with the Stangs tipping off at 7:30 both nights. We’ll have a preview of the UC-Colorado Springs game tomorrow.

The WNMU men’s tennis team has enjoyed some recent success making to the quarterfinals of the NCAA national tournament last year. Despite a new coach and several new players, the goal for the men is to exceed last year’s performance which included not only a trip the Big Dance but a Conference and Regional Championship.

The Mustangs were picked to finish 2nd in the RMAC pre-season poll receiving 3 of the 7 first place votes. Nebraska Kearney received the other 4 and was picked to top the conference. UNK was the runner up to the Mustangs in the regionals last year.

WNMU will be lead by the Preseason RMAC Player of the Year, Rodgrigo Almeida, a Sophomore form Arapongas Brazil. Almeida was the RMAC Freshman of the year last season and named to the All RMAC First Team in both singles and doubles. Almeida was 16-4 in singles matches last season. Senior Johan Weich was also named to the Preseason All RMAC Team. The native of Sweden as 11-9 in singles matches and was 5-0 in conference dual matches in singles. The pair will be joined on the courts by a team with a truly international flavor featuring players from Mexico, France, Spain and of course Dexter, New Mexico.

The Lady Stangs have not had the depth of talent nor the recent success of the men’s team but did finish 4th in the RMAC last season. This year they are picked to finish in the same spot behind Nebraska Kearney, Colorado Mesa and Metro State, but the Lady Stangs did garner 1 first place vote. That coach may be very prescient. WNMU placed 2 players on the All RMAC Preseason Team in Nikolina Vukadin and Ganna Tiurina.

Vukadin was 7-13 overall last season but finished strong going 4-2 at the #1 position for the Lady Stangs. Tiurina is a Freshman making her debut at the collegiate level but is obviously a well known junior circuit player. Vukadin hales from Bosnia and Herzegovina while Tiurina is from Kiev. Several new faces and a couple of returning players will round out the squad for WNMU. Watch for Doris Berberic, a Jr from New Zealand to build on a solid performance last year while Cobre High product Davida Aragon will continue to contribute.

Like softball WNMU Tennis has a new face at the helm, Guillaume Dupont takes over at WNMU after four years as an assistant at UNM as well as being the Head Pro at the Lobo Tennis Club. Dupont holds a Masters Degree in Sports Psychology and was a top ranked player in France, where he also coached junior players for 8 years. Dupont will be assisted by recently graduated stalwarts of Mustang tennis, Flavio Rueda and Yair Banuelos. The pair have been teaching junior tennis in Silver City under the USTA program since graduating last year from WNMU.

WNMU will have a new coach but a familiar face is at the helm for softball. Former Mustang and All American pitcher Angela Slaugh will lead the Lady Stangs into the 2012 season with high hopes; although the rest of the RMAC may not be as optimistic. Slaugh returned to WNMU a few years ago as assistant coach after a stint in Europe playing professionally and 2 years at Cal State – Monterey Bay. The RMAC is not giving the Lady Stangs much love in the preseason poll picking WNMU to finish 7th, right in the middle of the pack.

But the RMAC is wide open this year with the top 5 teams all receiving first place votes. Colorado School of Mines was the top pick followed by Regis, Metro State, Colorado Mesa, Adams State and CSU Pueblo. WNMU is coming off a 23-15 RMAC record last season.

WNMU had 2 players selected to the All Conference Pre Season Team; Kaitlynn Barnes and Brianna Robles. Barnes is a Sr. at the catcher position who led WNMU in batting average .425, home runs with 16, RBI with 55 and had a .977 fielding average at the plate. Robles is a Sr pitcher looking to build on last season’s 3.52 ERA in 194.2 innings and a 15-16 record overall.

WNMU will open the season February 4th at the Grand Canyon Kickoff before heading to Las Vegas NV to face some of the top teams in NCAA Division II.

Former Mustang Joon Lee has earned his Asian Professional Golf Tour player’s card. Lee played not only very well but very consistently in making the difficult run through the various qualifying rounds known as Q-school. In the final tournament of Q-School, Lee fired rounds of 67-71-71-72 to finish tied for 12th place; that’s out of a record 599 entries when Q-school started. Lee was only 7 shots behind winner David Lipsky who fired rounds of 72-65-69-68.

The Asian Tour is the only recognized PGA Tour in the Asian theater. The Asian Tour sanctions between 28 and 30 events per year with a total purse exceeding $39 million. Several tournaments draw the top players from around the world including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson and many top European PGA players. Former Asian Tour players now competing on the PGA Tour include Y. E. Yang, K. J. Choi and Charlie Wi.

Joon player for WNMU for 2 years in 2008-9 and 2009-10. He had a career scoring average of just over 73 and recorded 7 top 10 finishes before he moved on to NMSU and won the prestigious Herb Wimberly Invitational. Lee of course credits WNMU Mustang Coach Kent Beatty with teaching him the intricacies of the game and the keys to winning tournaments.

After the game on Saturday night I received a lecture from a parent of one of the NMHU players; someone I had mentioned during the broadcast. Since NMHU did not send a radio team NMHU fans of the Cowboys were listening to our broadcast. What I said about the player in question was an observation about his actions during a game a few years ago. I apologized to the woman if she did not remember it that way and clarified that I was not saying her son is in anyway a bad person. It was just an observation…

However she insisted on telling me that I was very one sided and at times “hateful” towards NMHU. In her opinion I guess I am supposed to be unbiased. Well, let’s say that we agree to disagree. Aw heck, let’s just go ahead and say it, she is dead wrong! I am the play by play announcer for the Mustangs; not the Cowboys or Grizzlies or anyone else. I am biased towards the Mustangs just as the broadcasters for those schools are biased towards their hometown teams. There is nothing wrong with that. I am an alum of WNMU and a fan. I have tried to be fair, but not unbiased.

Point numero dos: I do not like Highlands. It’s not personal against most of the players or the staff or the administration; it’s just that Highlands is our intrastate rival. In my experience they don’t like us either. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in Las Vegas and had someone come up to me in a restaurant and say something derogatory about WNMU, me or my companions. Too often it’s gone beyond a friendly rivalry; on more than one occasion I’ve had others step in and remove the person expressing his “opinion” about my mother or alma mater.

In contrast we have developed a budding rivalry with Adams State; but the people are very respectful, we’ve even been eating dinner after a game and had people come up and talk about how good the game was and they enjoyed it; win or lose. We’ve had people buy us a drink; they understand what’s going on. So to be clear, I am biased; I don’t like Highlands and I will continue that way. If you do not like it, then you do not have to listen. I am always open to criticism; I rarely write about the criticism I do receive. But this one, well, it stuck with me let’s say.

Is there anything better than beating your intrastate rivals in a key conference game? If there is, package it and sell it because victory over Highlands University is pretty sweet. WNMU rode the emotions of a near capacity crowd at Drag’s Court to a 93-75 drubbing of the Cowboys. It was a key RMAC victory for the Mustangs who improved to 6-7 that propelled them into a tie for the last two playoff spots with 4 other RMAC teams including NMHU. WNMU is only 1 game out of the 5th place spot as parity is the key word in the RMAC this season.

T. J. Riley got things started for the Mustangs as he came out of the gate like a finely tuned Ferrari; Riley hit his first 5 shots including a couple of 3 point shots and two free throws to get the home crowd fired up. Brelan Berry also got a couple of early buckets off of offensive boards to add to the Mustang lead. But Highlands wouldn’t go away and was able to stay within shouting distance of WNMU at the break getting a layup as time expired in the first stanza to cut WNMU’s lead to 11.

WNMU shot a blistering 55% from the field in the first half including 4-7 from triple point land. Highlands was pretty solid from the floor hitting 45% of their shots but could only manage to hit 1 of 8 three point attempts as the Mustang defense cranked up the pressure on Highland’s outside shooters. WNMU would intensify the defensive pressure in the 2nd half holding NMHU to 40% from the floor and 4-13 from downtown. The defense frustrated Highlands leading to 4 technical fouls and one ejection being called against the Cowboys. The one deficiency in WNMU’s effort was their free throw shooting; they hit only 57% on the night including making only 3 of 8 attempts taken due to the technical fouls.

While Riley sparked the first half for the Mustangs and finished with 24 points on the night, Chad Carter helped to hold of the inevitable Cowboy rally as he went off for 19 points, 16 coming in the 2nd half. He brought the crowd to their feet with an ESPN worthy highlight dunk midway through the second half that helped to quiet a Cowboy run that had cut the Mustang lead from 21 to 12 in about a minute and a half. Chris Mason continues to show why Coach Coleman thinks he has potential to be a great player, adding 14 points for the Mustangs including 5 in a row to derail a second Cowboy comeback attempt. Juan Saurez could not be contained at the point as he sliced through the Highlands defense getting to the basket often; he added 11 points most of it coming from the free throw line where he was 7-11. Unofficially the Mustangs had 11 blocked shots on the night; is there anything better than seeing Chad block a dunk attempt? I submit there is not unless it’s Chris or Darryl Littleton knocking the ball 10 rows into the stands.

The Mustangs will look to continue their home dominance next weekend as they host CSU-Pueblo and UC Colorado Springs on Friday and Saturday night. Both teams are tied with the Mustangs for those final playoff spots and these are key games for the Mustangs. Game time is 7:30 p.m. both nights.

WNMU’s women’s basketball team continues to battle each and every time they take the floor but injuries have really taken their toll on Western. The Lady Stangs would have loved for their first win of the season to come against their intrastate rival, New Mexico Highlands University on Saturday night but the Cowgirls rode 24 offensive rebounds which lead to 32 second chance points to cruise to a 27 point victory, 79-52 on Drag’s Court. Highlands also forced 18 Lady Stang turnovers and notched 15 steals to get 32 points off Lady Stang miscues.

Alyssa Lopez led all scorers with 24 points, 17 of those coming in the first half as she hit a couple of bombs early forcing the Lady Stang defense to spread the floor. Then Highlands was able to crash the boards and drive the lane getting some easy buckets as the WNMU squad couldn’t match the size or depth of Highlands. Ashley Godfrey added 13 points to a well balanced Cowgirl attack.

Western was paced in scoring by Heather Hamilton with 12 points followed closely by Kassie Scott with 11. Hamilton and Scott continue to be bright spots for the Lady Stangs in a tough season; opposing teams know these two are pretty good scorers and continue to focus their defensive efforts on stopping them, but they continue to lead the Lady Stangs night in and night out. Lonnie Sanchez hit a couple of threes to add 7 points and Larissa Loera added 6 for the home team. The Lady Stangs have yet to find their range from downtown hitting only 2-16 three point shots.

Western will host Colorado State – Pueblo and UC Colorado Springs next weekend. Game time is 5:30 both Friday and Saturday night.

The Mustangs have put themselves in a tough position but they have had some luck as well and despite losing 4 games on the road they should have won, they are still in the middle of a tight playoff battle as we get ever closer to the end of the regular season. Parity is the word of the year in men’s RMAC basketball as all but a couple of teams seem to be unable to take control. 5 teams are 6-6 in RMAC play with WNMU at 5-7 and one of those teams comes to Drag’s Court tonight, the always dangerous and talented Cowboys of NM Highlands.

Highlands is .500 on the year overall but is great at home and terrible on the road, 6-1 & 1-5 respectively. But it’s a rivalry game and Highlands has several players that can light it up; WNMU’s defense the last couple of weeks has disappeared allowing 91 points to two teams that averaged 70 or less. Highlands averages about 80 a game and has had 8 different players as the leading scorer this season. The team shoots pretty solidy, 47% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc. That’s stayed pretty consistent going into conference play as well. Team size is pretty comparable to the Mustangs but they are very athletic and fast. And they have depth with 16 players on the roster and 11 players averaging double minute time. No one averages more than 25 minutes a game, which exemplifies the up tempo style Coach Harge wants to play.

The Cowboys are led by Marcus Williams 5-10 Sr G and Momcilo Latinovic 6-6 Sr F with 16 pts a piece. Both of them create a lot of their own shots off the dribble and are quick to the basket. They do take 3 point shots but not a lot; don’t discount their effectiveness from downtown as Momcilo hits 50% and Marcus is hitting 48% in conference play. Both only take 2-3 long shots a game. One thing though, Momcilo has stepped up his frequency of 3 pt shooting in conference play on average but it looks like when he gets hot, he shoots a lot; if he doesn’t hit the first couple, he backs off. The Stangs will try and take him off that part of his game early. The other long ball threat for the Cowboys is Ryan Gonzales 6-2 Sr G who has taken 25% more long shots than Latinovic but Gonzales only hits for about 38%; still a solid performer. He is also very streaky. Watch out for Aaryon Williams 6-6 Sr. G, he has led the Cowboys in scoring several times but only averages 7 pts a game; he’s either feist or famine. While listed as a G he plays inside as a post player and doesn’t shoot outside at all. He gets going inside with offensive rebounds but clearly can be held to no contribution.

Simply, for the Cowboys, they have lots of depth, lots of athletic talent and there are any number of players who could step up and bite the Mustangs with a career type night. The Mustangs may play a little zone if Williams or someone else goes off inside and frankly to stop the penetration of Marcus W and Latinovic. The other key is going to be rebounding; if we don’t shoot well and don’t hit the offensive boards, Highlands will be off to the races and Western’s depth can’t match that of NMHU easily. Make the shots though and that’s the best defense. Highlands is emotional and can just as easily be frustrated and taken out of their game. If the Mustang defense shows up today, then the Cowboys are going to have a tough time staying in the game.

We’ll talk about what WNMU has to do in the tip off show at 5:30…

One thing has been a pleasant surprise for the Mustang basketball team this year; the defense has been good all season long. Over the last two nights, the defense for the Stangs has not been so pleasant. WNMU played well offensively but gave up 91 points to Chadron State and fell 91-85 in Nebraska.

WNMU once again got off to a solid start and Brelan Berry and Ryan Crane hit buckets early to spark a 7-0 run by the Mustangs. Things kept clicking as Chris Mason hit a 3 pointer to put Western up 24-11 midway through the first half. But Chris Tautuaa, 6-7 240 lbs, revved up the Eagles’ inside game hitting a couple of buckets and getting to the free throw line 10 times in the last 9 minutes of the first half, hitting 8 of them and the Eagles had the momentum with a 21-11 burst.

Chadron kept the momentum by starting to hit outside shots as the Mustangs tried to pack the defense in and stop Tautuaa; he finished the night with a game high 30 points. The Stangs were able to claw back with to within a bucket with 2 minutes left in the game but Tautuaa hit for 5 straight points and sealed the win for Chadron State. In the 2nd half Chadron hit 73% of their 26 shots and 71% of their three point attempts. Kevin McClelland added 21 points while Sammy Hines hit for 11 points.

WNMU scoring was paced by T.J. Riley with 19 and Chad Carter with 18. Freshman Chris Mason added 17 points to go with a team high 6 rebounds. Juan Saurez was the 4th Mustang in double figures with 10 points. WNMU struggled with the long shot once again hitting only 9 of 26 attempts. Foul trouble also plagued WNMU as 4 players had 4 fouls and limited playing time for Brelan Berry and Chad Carter, one reason Tautuaa had a career night.

The Mustangs will look to regain their winning ways as they host NM Highlands University on Saturday night in a pivotal game for both teams.