Timberwolves Rally Past NMMI in Bruce King Tournament Opener

December 12, 2025

***Eric Hofman drives the paint in traffic for a basket.***

The East Mountain High School Timberwolves kept their perfect season alive on Tuesday, overcoming a slow start and an early deficit to defeat the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) Colts, 49-42, in the opening round of the Bruce King Tournament. With the win, East Mountain improves to 4-0 on the season.

The Timberwolves had to dig themselves out of a hole almost immediately at Moriarty High School. NMMI opened the game with high energy, jumping out to an 8-0 lead.and forcing East Mountain head coach Brad Hofman to call an early timeout.

Despite the scoreboard, East Mountain head coach Brad Hofman was composed rather than alarmed.

“When that happens, just keep playing,” Hofman said of the early deficit. “I thought the kids were playing pretty well. We made a couple of mistakes in our press, but aside from that, our defense was good, our energy was good. We were just missing some shots.”

The Timberwolves responded to the timeout by settling down. After trailing 12-8 at the end of the first quarter, East Mountain dominated the second period. They tightened their defense and found their rhythm offensively, surging to a 27-17 halftime lead.

“We’re far enough along now that you have confidence [the shots] will make some,” Hofman said. “We’ve built up enough confidence that we’re not panicking early. It’s more to me about the effort and the energy and how we look, and we looked good. If anything, maybe we were a little too fired up for the game.”

Vicente J. Ortiz led the offensive charge for the Timberwolves, finishing with a game-high 18 points. He was joined in double figures by Liam Pierce with 12 points and Eric Hofmann with 11.

While the Timberwolves controlled the middle of the game, NMMI refused to go away quietly. The Colts cut the deficit significantly in the third quarter, pulling within three points at 37-34 heading into the final frame.

Hofman noted that while the effort was high, there were moments where defensive execution lapsed, particularly regarding the scouting report on NMMI’s shooters.

“There was some frustration there… just running around, leaving a shooter that is a really good shooter that you can’t leave,” Hofman admitted. “We were playing great defense on that kid, and then we would just leave him a couple of times, which we talked about a lot going into the game. It was good effort—we were playing hard—but just not playing smart.”

Despite the defensive hiccups and the NMMI rally, East Mountain regained control in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Colts down the stretch to secure the seven-point victory and advance in the tournament bracket.

Rounding out the scoring for East Mountain were Damion Reyes with 4 points, and Eli Conklin and Aiden Erickson contributing 2 points each.

East Mountain will look to build on their unblemished 4-0 record as they continue play in the Bruce King Tournament against host Moriarty at 7:30 pm on Friday.

Game Summary

Final Score: East Mountain 49, NMMI 42 (Bruce King Tournament – Opening Round)

Scoring Leaders (East Mountain):