The Lady Colts dropped just their second contest of the year, falling at home in their first district match-up of the season to visiting Tularosa High School, 42-39.

After a 5-5 tie at the end of the first period, the Lady Wildcats took the second 15-9, to go into the locker room at halftime with a 21-14 lead.

Late in third period, Tularosa increased that lead to 11 points, 31-20, after a three-pointer with one minute remaing. But the Lady Colts rallied, scoring seven unanswered points: a free-throw by Addison Kuehl, a trey by Nevaeh Clark, then an and-1 by Kaytlyn Lackey, to make it a four-point game going into the final stanza.

NMMI trailed by as much as nine points in parts of the fourth quarter, but closed the gap to just one point, 40-39, after Jadyn Wade hit the first of two free-throws with 2:28 left.

The Wildcats made it a three-point game with jumper in the paint at the 1:48 mark, closing out the scoring.

NMMI had only one final oppotunity on offense after that, but came up empty after a travelling call; the Tulie offense then worked off the remainder of the clock with excellent passing, movement and ball control, preventing another NMMI shot attempt.

"We just need to be better," said head Lady Colt coach Lawrence Hall after the hard-fought contest. "We came out a little slow to start the second, and we missied some key free throws down the stretch."

Clark led the Lady Colts in scoring on the night with 15 points; Lackey had 12; Aleyah Andrews put in 10; and Wade and Kuehl each with one.

With the loss, NMMI's overall record moves to 10-2, and 0-1 in district. They'll be right back on the court tomorrow (Sat. Feb. 7 at 12:00 pm MST) with a re-scheduled district game against Ruidoso High School that was originally slated for Tuesday.

The Lady Colts' next home game will be against Ruidoso asa well, currently set for Friday, Feb. 13 at 6:00 pm MST in the Godfrey Athletic Center.