Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—The OPSU men's basketball team battled on their home court Thursday night in a high-scoring shoot-out against Northern New Mexico College; NNMC earned a106-96 victory despite the hard work of Aggie guard Antonio Manns, Jr.   

Manns put up a career-high 42 points against the Eagles in Thursday's game; the New Mexico Military Institute transfer has earned game-high scores in all four games so far this season making him a reliable asset for the Aggies.

It was another slow start for the Aggies as they found themselves down by 16 points after the first five minutes of play. Manns fired up a shot from beyond the arc good for three which sparked a flame in the team as they added twelve more points to the board over the next two minutes cutting their deficit to three.

The Aggies continued to turn the heat up on the Eagles fighting for a two-point lead with 7:32 left in the half. NNMC would not relent and went on to out-score the Aggies 21-6 in the remaining seven minutes; the score was 49-36, Eagles at halftime.

Northern New Mexico came out of halftime hungry for more and pulled ahead by 15 points in the opening three minutes. The Aggies were able to cut the lead to within four two separate times but could not climb ahead and took a ten-point loss in the end.

The Eagles gained 29 points off Aggie turnovers and scored 46 of their points from the paint; OPSU showed depth by scoring 48 points from the bench. The Aggies averaged 41 percent from the field and were strong from the line at 81 percent.

Manns led all scorers with 42 points while gaining six rebounds, two assists and one steal on the game; he was perfect from the line (11-11) and sank 7-13 three-pointers. Nico Meadows and Jared Straight also shot double-digits for the Aggies with 16 and 15 points respectively. Walid Ahmed-Aly led the Eagles in scoring with 31 points followed closely by teammate William Harvey who totaled 28.

Coach Jerry Olson stated, "Antonio (Manns) played really well; sometimes we need to get him the ball more often. Nico (Meadows) also played hard. We just have to be ready to start a game. We've also got to guard the ball and keep it in front of us."

The Aggies out-scored the Eagles on second-chance points 12-10 grabbing 38 total rebounds. DeShawn Dean led the game in rebounds with eight while fellow Aggies Payson Slater contributed six along with Manns. Eric Garcia brought down seven rebounds for the Eagles.

Although the Aggies matched NNMC in defensive rebounds with 25 each, Olson felt that his team was not at their best defensively stating, "Our defense may have been the worst I've seen. We've got to start defending sometime." Olson showed appreciation of his leading defender, DeShawn Dean saying, "DeShawn was really active and played hard."

With a 1-3 overall record the Aggies will look to their next match-up Tuesday, Nov. 25 against the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs who is currently ranked 14th among NCAA Division-II teams; tip-off is set for 7 p.m. in the Oscar Williams Field House.