New Mexico State women's basketball beats Abilene Christian at home

LAS CRUCES - Soufia Inoussa scored a career-high 28 points to lead the New Mexico State women's basketball team to a 69-61 victory over Abilene Christian on Thursday at the Pan American Center.

The Aggies improved to 11-10 on the season and 6-3 in the Western Athletic Conference and have a week off before a road game at California Baptist next Thursday.

"When you see the ball go in once and then twice, you just get that confidence and keep playing," said Inoussa, who was 10 for 19 from the field and 5 for 8 from 3-point range. "It's also due to my teammates. They believe in me every day and every game. They tell me to keep shooting even though I don't have a good game."

Thursday was just the fifth time this season Inoussa has scored in double figures, but she couldn't miss in the first half. Inoussa was 4 for 5 from 3-point range for 15 first half points and a 40-29 halftime lead.

"It just says so much about her teammates to be for her (Inoussa) and want to lift her up in that spotlight and she deserves it," Aggies coach Jody Adams said. "It's a young lady that comes to practice every day to work and really hone her craft. ... She plays both sides of the ball really really hard for us."

The Aggies shot 52 percent from the field and finished 8 for 14 (57 percent) from behind the 3-point line.

"These guys are coming in and making 200 shots a day," Adams said. "Most teams going into February, they want a break and they don't want to be in the gym. Our players genuinely come in happy and are excited about seeing each other and playing basketball."

The Aggies extended the lead to 57-39 entering the fourth quarter, but ACU (4-4 WAC) closed to within 63-57 on a Claire Graham 3-pointer with two minutes to play.

Tayelin Grays hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Shania Harper hit a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left before Molly Kaiser drew an offensive foul to close the game out.

"They deserve a couple days off to get things academically figured out before we go on the road again and let their bodies rest and get away from basketball and be excited about stepping back on the court on Sunday," Adams said.

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico State women's basketball beats Abilene Christian at home