By Wes Bloomquist  ||  wes.bloomquist@angelo.edu

SILVER CITY, New Mexico – Angelo State took command early and finished off a near 2,000 mile road trip with Raijon Kelly and Chris Jones each scoring 14 points to help lead the No. 23-ranked Rams to an 85-52 non-conference win over Western New Mexico on Monday at Drag's Court.

The Rams (7-1), who led by 20 at halftime and have now scored 80 or more points in seven of eight games, finished off a three-game road trip with 13 players scoring against the Mustangs (0-4) and will now return to San Angelo where they will host Texas-Permian Basin at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Junell Center. ASU is now averaging 89.1 points per game and has an impressive 27.1 scoring margin through its first eight games of the season.

"Tonight was a team effort," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "We got good production and minutes from our bench. We learned a lot about our team on this three-game road trip. We are looking forward to getting back to San Angelo and getting back to practice."

Jones added four steals and three assists for the Rams to go along with his 14 points on a 7 of 9 shooting night, while Kelly had five assists and went 5 of 6 from the floor as the two helped ASU to a 61.5 shooting percentage in the game. Marsell Holden and DeQuavious Wagner joined Jones and Kelly in double figures with Holden going for 11 points and Wagner 10 points with both guards hitting on two 3-pointers. Bilal Richardson added nine points and led the Rams with six rebounds and Demario Mayfield contributed five assists and five rebounds.  

Angelo State finished the game with a 25-4 advantage on fast-break points and also dominated the paint with a 36-28 scoring advantage in the paint and a 38-25 rebounding margin. ASU shot 69.2 percent from the field in the second half and went 16 of 21 from the free-throw line. Along with having 13 players score in the game, ASU continued to play unselfish basketball with 23 assists in the game.

The Rams trailed only once in the game at 4-2 three minutes into the game before going on a 7-0 run which put them in command. The run was started on a layup by Jones and also saw a 3-pointer by Holden and was capped by layups by Jones and Holden. A 3-pointer by Tommy Woolridge gave the Rams an 18-13 lead with 11:26 remaining in the first half and the lead grew to 30-17 with Gudul making a layup off an assist from Jones with 5:43 to play before halftime. Jones would hit another layup to take the halftime score to 38-18 and the Rams would never look back in the game as they improved to 2-1 on the road this season.  

Tyler Shea led WNMU with 13 points and added three rebounds, while Terrez Scott had 10 points and four assists. The Mustangs were limited to 35.2 percent shooting on the night by the Rams and struggled on 3-pointers by going 4 of 13 from behind the arc in their home-opener.

Jones led the Rams at halftime with 10 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field, while also adding three rebounds and two assists. Holden chipped in eight points, including a 3-pointer and hitting 3 of 4 shots from the free-throw line and Kelly, Gudul and Richardson each scored four first-half points.

The Rams shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first half and limited the Mustangs to 29.2 percent. ASU was only 2 of 7 from beyond the arc with Holden and Woolridge each hitting on 3-pointers, but the team made up for its 3-point shooting by hitting 8 of 10 shots from the line and also had a 19-14 rebounding and 8-6 turnover advantage.