HOBBS, NM---The Mustang Men's Basketball program hosted Jarvis Christian on Saturday afternoon in a RRAC matchup. The Mustangs defeated the Bulldogs 75-68 thanks to a freshman leading the team in scoring and some stingy defense down the stretch. The victory brings their record to 10-7 overall and 5-2 in RRAC play. The currently sit in 4th place in the conference which a pivotal week coming up. 

"Tough game tonight. We tried to pull away, but Jarvis kept fighting and were scrappy on defense. We have to keep working and grinding. They're one heck of a basketball team and they made us fight for everything we got. " said Head Coach Cory Hitchcock. 

Thurbil Bile led the team in scoring with 18 points in 24 minutes. The freshman was 6-10 from the field and 6-6 from the free throw line. Bile also grabbed 6 rebounds and dished out 2 assists. "Thurbil's game is down low. He did a good job of being in the right spot at the right time and the guards found him. We knew there was some holes in the defense we could exploit. But they made some adjustments there in the 2nd half." said Coach Hitchcock on his freshman forward. 

Joshua Harris and Nathaniel White were the other two Mustangs in double figures as Harris scored 17 points on 5-10 shooting. White led the team with 3 made three-pointers for 11 total points. "Nate White stepped up huge for us. He has been really playing some good basketball as of late." said Coach Hitchcock on White's performance. 

The Mustangs welcome LSU-Shreveport and LSU-Alexandria this upcoming week for 2 more RRAC matchups. Both teams are in front of the Mustangs in the conference standings and Coach Hitchcock knows his team has a tall task this week as LSU-A (#11) and LSU-S (#5) are both nationally ranked in the top 15. "We're gonna have to play defense. Both these teams score a lot of points and we have to take pride in defense. We have to outwork them and play like we did Thursday against Texas College. It's going to take a total team effort.