NMSU women's basketball has fifth conference game postponed due to COVID-19

LAS CRUCES — The New Mexico State women's basketball team has had its fifth Western Athletic Conference game postponed due to COVID-19, NM State Athletics announced Wednesday in a statement.

The Aggies Saturday home game against Stephen F. Austin has been canceled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Ladyjacks program, according to the release. SFA and NMSU officials are working on a make-up date that is yet to be determined. The schools will announce the new date and time when they have been agreed upon by the two programs, the release said. NMSU's Thursday home game against Sam Houston State is not affected by SFA's postponement.

This is now the seventh game overall NMSU has had canceled or postponed due to virus issues this season, either within the Aggies program or an opposing program. NMSU had its first four conference games postponed due to virus issues in its program before it finally began conference play Jan. 10 against Lamar. The Aggies have lost their last two WAC contests since opening the conference slate with a 57-53 victory.

NMSU head coach Brooke Atkinson said after the Lamar game that this season feels similar to last year, when the Aggies were forced to play their season outside of the state of New Mexico and games were regularly canceled or postponed due to virus issues.

"I was hoping that we were going to be far past this," Atkinson said. "But I think you just can never take for granted the next 10 minutes because you don't know if there's going to be a positive (test) and someone's going to be out however many days."

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: NMSU women's basketball Saturday game vs. Stephen F. Austin postponed due to COVID-19