SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
After some tough losses, all on the road, New Mexico State’s men’s basketball team finally did some home work with Wednesday night‘s 73-67 win over visiting Stephen F. Austin at its Pan American Center in Las Cruces.
Austin was also one of those at home that previously defeated the Aggies, so did Santa Clara, UTEP, Seattle, and Southern Utah, which also got past UNMS home and away.
But this was a quality win over an Austin team that dropped to 15-8 overall and 7-3 in the Western Athletic Conference, while the Aggies upped their overall mark to 8-14 and 1-9 in the conference. That’s right, it was their conference triumph of the season.
Back on Jan. 4, NMSU hit the road for Austin and returned with a 69-60 setback. Now it returned the favor with a balanced lineup that had five players in double figures.
“We definitely achieved something today,” said 6-foot-9 junior forward Issa Muhammad, who tossed in a dozen points and brought down 11 rebounds. “Everybody did their job tonight … so it’s feeling good right now.
Others who chipped in were 6-8 sophomore Doctor Bradley with Th 15 points.
Injured 6-2 junior point guard Xavier Pinson came off the bench to add nine points and seven assists before a crowd announced as 5,107.
The Aggies led 40-38 at halftime. They also outrebounded the Lumberjacks, 35-28, and had more assists, 12-11.
From the field New Mexico State shot 28 for 59 and it made two of eight 3s. Austin was 24 for 54 from the floor and hit on six of 13 from beyond the ark. Free throws, the Aggies converted 12 of 23, the visitors 13 of 19.
The road losses were all close. There was 66-65 at Santa Clara, 67-64 at UTEP, 77-72 at Southern Utah after a 77-72 defeat at home, and 69-66 at Seattle. Of course all these setbacks could have gone either way.
It’s a rather young Aggies lineup with eight freshman, four sophomores, five juniors and two seniors. There are four redshirts among this group.
The next contest for New Mexico State is Saturday at home to Seattle.
“It was definitely a good win,” said Aggies’ head coach Greg Heiar. “We fell short in too many games and needed to bring home a win, as we did.”
