The bye came at the right time for the Western Texas College men’s basketball team.
Anton Bilous made a 3-pointer to give the Westerners (13-10, 4-5) a lead they never lost in an 84-72 win over New Mexico Junior College Monday night.
“We had more energy because of the bye than in the games during the past two weeks,” Westerner head coach Larren Silver said. “We had second-half leads against Midland and Howard at home and lost. The bye gave us time to regroup and work on areas that needed improvement.”
Curtiss Anderson and Shannon James each scored 14 points for WTC. Xavier Ledet had 13 points, Jeffrey Uju scored 12 points and Jason Nunez added 11 points.
“Jeff played his best conference game,” Silver said. “Shane played a solid game. They showed a lot of toughness.”
Randy Haynes led New Mexico JC with 15 points. Jalin Hart and Tyler Blount each had 13 points. Xavier Gomez and Nnamdi Okoro finished with 10 points each.
The score was tied three times and the lead changed 13 times during the opening 10 minutes before WTC took the lead for good. After Bilous’ 3-pointer, Uju and Nunez made 3-pointers to increase the lead to 32-24 late in the first half.
After the Thunderbirds pulled to within 34-29, Uju and Nunez made field goals to give WTC a 38-29 halftime lead.
In the second half, Anderson gave WTC its first double-digit lead, which grew to as much as 13 points.
The Thunderbirds trailed 54-42 before Okoro scored two field goals and Gomez made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 54-49.
WTC outscored NMJC 12-7 to regain a double-digit lead, 66-56.
“We are starting to come together after losing a lot of close games,” Silver said. “I believe that helped us to learn how to close out games.”
The Westerners have games against the three teams ahead of them in the Western Junior Athletic Conference standings. WTC will play at Midland College and will host South Plains College and Frank Phillips College.
“We still are hanging in there and need a few more wins to challenge,” Silver said.
The Westerners will play at Howard College at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
New Mexico JC scorers — Randy Haynes 15, Jalin Hart 13, Tyler Blount 11, Xavier Gomez 10, Nnamdi Okoro 10, Emmanuel Ansah 8, Devin Wyatt 3, El Hadji Dieng 2.
WTC scorers — Curtiss Anderson 14, Shannon James 14, Xavier Ledet 13, Jeffrey Uju 12, Jason Nunez 11, Shane Johnson 8, Christian Hewitt 5, Anton Bilous 3, Kolbe Kinghorn 3, Traylin Prejean 1.
WTC statistics — Jeffrey Uju 9 rebounds, 5 assists; Kevin Hicks 1 assist; Shannon James 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal; Xavier Ledet 7 rebounds, 1 assist; Shane Johnson 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals; Curtiss Anderson 6 rebounds, 3 blocked shots; Jason Nunez 3 assists, 1 steal; Traylin Prejean 3 rebounds, 1 steal; Christian Hewitt 3 rebounds; Anton Bilous 1 assist; Tavon Ngangum 1 rebound.
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