NM State men handed 106-62 loss by New Mexico in first rivalry game of season

Sam Guzman
·3 min read
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KTSM) – New Mexico State had no answer for New Mexico in their first meeting of the 2023-24 season as the Lobos dominated the Aggies for a 106-62 win in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,435 at ‘The Pit’ on Saturday night.

This was the first Rio Grande Rivalry game between the Aggies and Lobos men’s basketball teams since the deadly Nov. 19, 2022 shooting incident in Albuquerque, which led to the cancellation of last season’s home-and-home series.

It was the first game between the two sides since Dec. 6, 2021, where New Mexico State won that game, 78-76, in overtime thanks to a Nate Pryor buzzer beater.

Saturday’s meeting between the Aggies and Lobos was far different from the previous meeting.

New Mexico was led by star player Jaelen House. In his second game back with the Lobos, House scored 28 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor and going 5-of-6 from three-point land. It was in the first half where House scored 92% of his points. House collected 26 points on 8-of-9 shooting and was perfect from three-point land on five attempts.

House also tacked on four assists on the night and wasn’t the only player to scored 20+ points in the contest. Tru Washington collected 21 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 3-of-4 shooting from deep, and 2-of-2 at the free throw line.

As a team the Lobos shot 60% (32-53) from the floor 56% (14-25) from three, and 68% (28-41) from the charity stripe. Lobos’ bench outscored the Aggies, 51-15.

New Mexico State hung in with New Mexico early on but quickly fell off as the game went on. Turnovers hurt the Aggies in this contest as they turned the ball over 17 times. New Mexico took advantage and scored 19 points off NMSU’s turnovers. The Aggies’ offense didn’t find much of a rhythm as it scored no points on fast breaks, meanwhile the Lobos’ offense scored 21 points off the fastbreak.

Femi Odukale led the Aggies in scoring as he recorded 18 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and 10-of-14 shooting from the free-throw line. Odukale ended up fouling out the game with 01:32 left in the contest. Kaosi Ezeagu and Clarence Jackson were the only other Aggies to finish the game in double-figures in the scoring category.

New Mexico State led the game for the first minute and twenty seconds of the game, but after that New Mexico dominated and led the rest of the way.

With the loss, New Mexico State falls to 4-6 on the season. The Aggies will now get a week without any games before they return with a home game against Northern New Mexico on Dec. 12.

New Mexico improves to 7-1 on the season. The Lobos will get another home game as they are set to take on UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

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