Silver City, N.M. – Silver City turned the Buccaneers Men's Basketball team to gold, but the party ended early as the NCAA Division II Western New Mexico Mustangs rallied in the second half to defeat the Bucs 70-57.
The Buccaneers jumped out to an early seven point lead just under four minutes in, largely thanks to the trio of LC Ballard, Zrebric Humphrey Jr., and Vincent Cooke. The Bucs then extended their lead to 21 with 8 minutes to go, highlighted by Ballard buckets on back-to-back possessions, and finished the half with a towering 41-18 lead.
All seemed smooth sailing for the Bucs at halftime; the starters, led by Cooke's eight rebounds and a combined shooting percentage of 53.8% by the starting five, the Buccaneers had pushed the Mustangs to a sizable deficit. The Mustangs hadn't exactly helped themselves, however, a 21.2% shooting percentage, including 1-8 from deep, as well as 9 first half turnovers, put Zane Gibson's 'Stangs in a tough spot.
As the time ticked down in the second half, however, the Mustangs showed the reason that they're a competitive Division II program, and flexed some offensive muscle. Led by DJ Heath and Keith Littles, the Mustangs quickly turned the Bucs halftime lead into a two point lead of their own with 6:29 left in the second half. Then, things quickly turned from bad to worse for the Bucs, who finished shooting 22.2% as a team in the final 20 minutes, as the Mustangs went on a 25-7 run to finish things out.
For the Bucs and head coach Gordon Stubblefield, while not the finish they had wanted walking into the locker room at half, yet still a good result overall. Ballard finished with 22 points on 8-17 shooting, setting his season-high point total. Cooke set a season-high of his own, falling just two rebounds short of the double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds. Humphrey Jr. didn't add any points to his 13 that he had in the first half, but did look solid in his return from injury, adding six rebounds to his stat line.
The Bucs face off against Whittier College at Bell Bank Park on Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. in their last non-conference game of the season.
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