Aggies rebound from horrendous loss with physical win over Stephen F. Austin

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Rebounding has defined Chris Jans' New Mexico State basketball teams in his five year tenure in Las Cruces — and not just cleaning up misses off the backboard, although he preaches it ad nauseam.

Aside from last season's greatly-disrupted Covid season which prevented the Aggies from playing a game in Las Cruces, Jans' teams have almost always rebounded after a conference loss. Before last year, NMSU had not lost consecutive conference games since Jans' first season with the Aggies in 2018.

Saturday afternoon, fresh off their worst conference loss of the Chris Jans era against Sam Houston, the Aggies rebounded in more ways that one with a 72-58 beatdown of new conference opponent Stephen F. Austin. Not only did NMSU rebound from a loss and avoid falling to 5-2 in conference play, but its leading scoring combo of redshirt junior guards Jabari Rice and Teddy Allen, held to two combined points Thursday, bounced back for 47 total points in 68 combined minutes.

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How it happened

Of course, literal rebounding was as big a factor as figurative rebounding. Especially when the first shot didn't fall.

NMSU narrowly clung to a 44-40 lead with 11 minutes left in the second half. SFA had clawed back from a 10-point deficit minutes earlier and cut NMSU's lead to two for a possession before Rice bailed out the Aggies with a layup. Jans called timeout minutes earlier to try and stop the bleeding. The Aggies needed another basket.

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Graduate forward Yuat Alok's eight-foot post-hook shot rimmed out, but senior forward Donnie Tillman was there to take out two Lumberjack defenders for a tip-in chance on the offensive rebound. When it missed, Alok was there for another second-chance tip opportunity before SFA finally fouled him on the floor. But his effort eventually got him a wide-open 15-foot baseline jump shot that he splashed with ease to stretch the lead to six.

The category Jans has verbally stressed more than anything this season, and a category he hasn't always been pleased with given the board-clearing success some of his previous NMSU teams have had, made its return to prominence after a disappointing performance against Sam Houston State.

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Allen, Rice, Tillman and redshirt senior forward Johnny McCants all finished with at least six rebounds, and NMSU out-rebounded SFA 47-29. They had seven more second-chance opportunities than the Lumberjacks, elucidated by Rice's and-one second-chance bucket off Allen's 3-point heave with 2:30 left to stretch the lead to 14. It helped the Aggies overcome their 18 turnovers.

Redshirt senior guard Clayton Henry, who started in the place of Allen, splashed the dagger 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 16 points with 51 seconds left.

It was one of the biggest plays of the night that didn't involve a rebound. But it secured the Aggies rebound over their new East Texas conference foe to close their two-game road trip.

Saturday's stars

Allen went for 26 points and seven assists on seven of 10 shooting from the 3-point line and shot 60% from the field, and Rice finished with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Tillman had seven points and eight rebounds. McCants had five points, six rebounds and three assists.

NMSU shot 44% from the field and 14 of 28 from beyond the arc.

Senior forward Gavin Kensmil, SFA's leading scorer, dealt with foul trouble throughout the contest and was limited to eight points and eight rebounds. He finished with four personal fouls.

What was said

Chris Jans on the decision to bring Allen off the bench: "We had one lineup change, and that stuff happens throughout the course of the season, and that's between Teddy and I."

Jans on the team's rebounding: "The rebounding numbers hop off the page. Seventeen offensive rebounds, I'm not sure how many games we've played this year where we've matched or exceeded that number, if any, for that matter, off the top of my head. I know it's been a while. We haven't had a bunch of those types of games like we used to, so that was nice to see. We knew it was going to be a physical game. We obviously watched the Grand Canyon-SFA game on Thursday, where that was a physical contest. ...Certainly coming off our last outing, our disposition was going to be on point. You'd expect that."

Jans on the last few days after the Sam Houston loss: "I can't speak for my players, but for me, it was miserable. Pretty close to miserable. The way we got beat, and like I kept telling my staff, I can handle playing well and fighting and competing and coming out on the short end. You do this long enough, you're going to get beat. It happens all the time. ...But in the manner that we lost, that was a gut punch. That was, wow. We got exposed... and that was humbling. The kids, fortunately are more resilient maybe than the adults in these situations in terms of handling and moving on. ...Certainly as a coaching staff, you can't dwell on it too much either, or it's going to be a hangover effect. ...We were real blunt with them and certainly watched the film and had meetings, had individual meetings, there's been a lot of meetings in the last 48 hours of whatever it was leading up to this game, and we had some really good responses, certainly as a team, but even as individuals."

Rice on the team's approach Saturday after Thursday's loss: "I think we just got more mentally prepared. Just re-centered outselves. Just kind of had to take a pause, because that's not a normal loss. That was a whooping. I guess we just got more focused and knew exactly what we had to do. We can't afford those games anymore."

What's next

NMSU is off until next Saturday's home game against Grand Canyon, which NM State Athletics has already announced will be the program's annual white-out game. SFA is at Seattle Wednesday.

Stephen Wagner is a sports reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can found on Twitter at @stephenwag22 and reached at SWagner@lcsun-news.com.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Aggies rebound from horrendous loss with physical win over Stephen F. Austin