HOBBS, NM. – The Mustang men's basketball team was not able to come away with 2 wins to close out the 2018-19 season on Saturday after holding double-digit leads late in both games, as they fell to thirteenth-ranked Wiley College, 67-70 on Saturday, and 88-90 on Thursday to Jarvis Christian.
On Saturday, a 13-4 run by the Wildcats in the last 2:21 proved to be the difference in the game as the Mustangs gave up their lead for the first time in the game late in the second half.
Wiley (22-5, 14-4 RRAC) hit 42 percent of its shots in the game, including 58 percent in the second half when the Wildcats outscored the Mustangs 41-26.
Joshua Harris led the Mustangs (5-20, 3-15) with 15 points, while
Derrick Hall and
Akeem Black added twelve points each.
Emmanuel McNeil led USW's rebounding effort with seven boards in the game. For the game, Wiley was plus-6 in rebounding (42-36), while
Derrick Hall led with multiple assists in the game (5), while
Rontrell Hills lead in steals with five.
The Mustangs led by as many as thirteen in the second half before the Wildcats scored on 4 straight possessions (10 points) to knot the score at 59-59 with 1:29 remaining.
The Mustangs would answer back as
John Paul Garcia (2-pointer), scored to take a lead, but that was the last points the Mustangs would score until a last second shot by
Derrick Hall to close the game.
"I thought we played really well in the game, and just like on Thursday night, us missing Free Throws cost us the game once again" said Head Coach
Timm Dixon. "We have lost a total of 8 games this year due to us shooting 60% FT's or less and tonight was no different. Give credit to Wiley, they are nationally ranked and found a way to win, but I think the way we played, if we make FT's and take care of the ball, we had a chance to win the last two games of year."
Even though the Mustangs end the 2018-19 season with a losing record, their average margin of losses in conference play was only 9 points to conference opponents.
The Red River Athletic Conference consistently had 5 teams ranked in the Top 25/RV throughout the year and out of the twenty losses, 11 were to teams ranked in the Top 25/RV category. "Our conference is the toughest NAIA men's conference in the nation, and ten of our fifteen conference losses were to the teams who were nationally ranked all year long." said Dixon "We competed, we just couldn't finish games we had leads in. Out of the fifteen conference losses, we had leads in twelve of them that we could not hold onto late in the game."
The Mustangs wrap up the year third in Red River Conference statistics in Assists per Game (19.28) and Steals per game (7.89). And finished 8th nationally in Assists.
"There is a lot to build on this year moving into next year" said Dixon "We will look to find some more shooters on the recruiting trail this year as we finished last in the conference in 3-pt FG made and we need to find a big post presence who wants to post up and rebound. Our schedule is set-up next year to have more home games then we did this year, and I feel that this will help us gain some much needed confidence early in the season to be successful at the end."
The 2019-20 non-conference schedule is completed as the Mustangs look to open next years campaign on the road against two NAIA Frontier Conference schools in Montana. They will then home games against NCAA DII schools, Western New Mexico & New Mexico Highlands, along with Nationally Ranked Wayland Baptist, Oklahoma Panhandle State and Northern New Mexico. The Mustangs will also play on the road at NCAA DII schools Ft Lewis College, UT-Permian Basin, Lubbock Christian, and West Texas University. "Our non-conference schedule will really help us prepare to compete in the Red River Conference by playing very tough NCAA DII opponents early, and I look forward to getting ready for next year" said Dixon.
The Mustangs look to tip off action next season on October 24th, 2019. Follow the website as the schedule is finalized later in the year.
