Jolen Montoya Signs National Letter-of-Intent with ENMU Men’s
Basketball Team

PORTALES, NM — Jolen Montoya, a 5’9” 165-pound point guard from Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kansas, has signed a National Letter-of-Intent to play for the Eastern New Mexico University men’s basketball team. Montoya, who has played two seasons as a junior college athlete, will be a junior at ENMU during the 2004-05 season.

Montoya, from Cordova, N.M. (Espanola Valley HS), averaged 12 points and 6.4 assists per game during the 2003-04 season at Neosho County CC. He shot 84 percent at the free throws line and sank 35.7 percent of his 3-point shots (76 of 213). He was named Honorable Mention All-Jayhawk Conference. Montoya previously played one season at Pratt CC in Kansas.

Montoya was chosen NJCAA National Player-of-the-Week on Jan.17, 2004, after earning a 23.3 scoring average in three games for Neosho County. He shot 50.0% from the field (23 of 45) during the week, while hitting 48.4% on 3-pointers (15 of 31) and making 9 of 10 free throws. He recorded 10 assists in each of the three games.

“Jolen did a solid job this past season at Neosho County in finding teammates,” ENMU Head Coach Shawn Scanlan said. “He ranked 15th in the nation in assists per game and was a solid 3-point shooter. He can probably play two positions for us (point guard and shooting guard) in certain situations. He had a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio for the season, and was among the national leaders in free throw percentage.”

As a high school player, Montoya was named First Team All-State in Class 4A and was a First Team All-District selection. He was selected to play in the North/South All-Star Game and was chosen Male Athlete-of-the-Year at Espanola Valley HS. Eastern New Mexico University won the 2003-04 Lone Star Conference South Division title for the second year in a row and qualified for Eastern’s first NCAA Division II Tournament berth since 1992-93. The Greyhounds recorded their second straight 20-win season, as ENMU ended the year at 20-9 overall, including 10-2 in the LSC South.