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Colorado Mesa men's basketball (5-3, 3-1) dropped its first RMAC game Saturday night at the buzzer to New Mexico Highlands (4-3, 3-1) 81-79 in Las Vegas, N.M.

NMHU's Billy Austin's jumper as time expired gave the Cowboys their third consecutive victory. Austin led the Cowboys with 22 points, four rebounds and three assists.

CMU led 37-31 at intermission and led by as many as seven points in the first half. The Mavericks turned the ball over 12 times in the first half resulting in 15 Cowboy points.

NMHU opened the second half on a 12-0 run to take a 43-37 lead forcing six CMU turnovers in the first 2:00 of action. NMHU held a single digit lead until Michael Bear's free throws at 13:10 gave the Mavs a 49-47 lead. NMHU regained the lead at 12:18 off a tip-in by Billy Austin following a steal. The Cowboys held the lead until Mike Melillo's trey with 5:22 left in regulation gave CMU a one-point lead (65-64). The lead would change hands six different times in the final 5:00 of play.

Michael Bear's three-pointer at 1:19 put CMU ahead 75-74 and after a steal by Jeff Hart and two made free throws; CMU led 77-74 with just over one minute remaining. After trading layups CMU led 79-76 with 22 seconds left. NMHU's Billy Austin hit a trey to tie the game at 79-79 (14 seconds). With four seconds remaining a missed jumper by CMU resulted in a Cowboys rebound and Billy Austin's jumper at the buzzer gave Highlands the home win.

Michael Bear led the Mavs with 23 points and nine rebounds. Bear was 11 of 12 from the foul line and 2 of 4 from 3-point range. Mike Melillo had 15 points, six rebounds and three assists. Chandler Burgon finished with 10 points and four rebounds.

NMHU had four players register double digits, led by Austin's 22 points. The Cowboys forced 26 turnovers resulting in 32 points.

CMU will return home to host Fort Lewis College (Friday) and Adams State College (Saturday) at Brownson Arena.  Tip-off is set for 7:30 pm.