Men's Basketball picks up first WJCAC victory with a 72-68 win over #5 NMJC

Beginning Western Junior College Athletic Conference play at 0-2, the Odessa College men's basketball team found itself in a must-win situation.

The Wranglers ended up getting exactly what they needed.

Odessa College defeated No. 5-ranked New Mexico Junior College 72-68 Monday at the OC Sports Center.

With the win, the Wranglers moved to 12-5 overall, 1-2 in WJCAC.

New Mexico Junior College fell to 15-2, 1-2.

"We won," Odessa College head coach Kris Baumann said. "It wasn't pretty at times but I was happy for the kids. They gutted one out and now we've won one game. Now we need to see if we can go to New Mexico Military on Thursday and get another one."

Odessa College was led in scoring by Bradford's 16 points while Carson had 12 and Samarion Bond finished with 10.

New Mexico Junior College was led in scoring by Isaiah Alexander's 16 points while Armon Jarrard had eight.

"New Mexico is fifth in the country for a reason," Baumann said. "They're a good team. I thought we played well. I thought we were good on defense. I thought JD Bradford was excellent. He made a huge 3-pointer for us and some free throws down the stretch and we got some other guys that have to make better decisions but I was happy with the win. We've been on the wrong side so we had to snap out of this losing streak that we've been on which is unusual around here. We need to find a way to build off this and see if we can win another one on Thursday."