Written by: NMSU Athletic Dept.
LOGAN, UT – The New Mexico State women's basketball team overcame a sluggish first 25 minutes of the game and finished strong down the stretch to pick up a 71-58 victory over Utah State Thursday evening at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
With just over 15 minutes to play NMSU trailed by one, but the Aggies then used a 18-9 run to pull ahead and held USU to just one field goal in the final four minutes of play to seal the victory.
The Aggies victory gives them a series sweep over Utah State and NMSU now improves to 14-4 on the year and 4-1 in WAC play. USU falls to 6-12 and 2-4 in the conference this season.
Four Aggies scored in double figures with sophomore guard Hannah Spanich highlighting the game with her career-high of 15 points off of 4-of-6 shooting from the floor and a 7-of-8 performance at the free throw line.
Head coach Darin Spence said his team was a happy group after the win, escaping what he called a dull place to play where there was a bunch of empty chairs.
"I'm very pleased with how the team responded from our La. Tech week, not just the loss but the week of practice," Spence said. "We had spirited practices this week and we got back to our identity. This is a huge win for us and it's nice to get a series sweep over them after having lost our last three out of our last four against them."
Senior forward Sherell Neal led all Aggies with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting and she also had a game-high eight rebounds. Classmate Anikia Jawara added 16 points and freshman guard Madison Spence had 12.
New Mexico State shot 53.1 percent in the game, marking the third time this season that NMSU has shot above 50 percent in a game. The Aggies also made 17-of-21 shots at the free-throw line and were 9-of-11 in the final two minutes to help seal the victory.
Utah State center Jenny Gross led all scorers with 19 points.
Spence got things going early on for the Aggies who were a little sluggish out of the gates. She hit a 3-pointer 20 seconds into the game and scored seven of NMSU's first 11 points in the opening six minutes of the game.
Jawara's bucket in the post gave the Aggies a six-point lead at 10:31. Utah State then proceeded to go on a 7-0 run thanks to a three and a layup from guard Alice Coddington, giving the UtAgs their first lead of the game at 8:43.
Junior guard Tyshae Walton hit a couple of long jumpers and Jawara scored two buckets in the paint in the final eight minutes of the half where the lead changed hands seven times.
With 1.9 seconds left in the half and the game tied at 33, NMSU in-bounded under its own hoop and Neal got an open eight-foot jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the Aggies a 35-33 lead heading into the locker room.
Neal and Spanich both had eight points in the opening half where the Aggies shot 60 percent from the floor, but NMSU's 11 turnovers limited its production. Gross led Utah State in the half with 11 points.
The two teams continued to trade baskets in the first five minutes of the second half. The Aggies were down by one before Neal scored five-straight points, the last three coming on an old fashion three point play where she spun away from her defender in the lane and made the layup while being fouled.
Then two jumpers in the lane from Jawara and senior guard Monique Bribiescas gave the Aggies a 51-45 lead with 12:27 to play.
New Mexico State was still up by five with under seven minutes to play when Jawara fed a slashing Neal for the layup at 6:33, putting the Aggies up by seven. USU answered right back with a layup, but then Jawara prevented any momentum swing with her old fashion three point play to put NMSU up 60-52 with 5:22 to play.
The Aggies played very aggressive in the final four minutes of the game; maybe a little too aggressive as they had several fouls that put the UtAgs on the free-throw line three times. USU only made 2-of-5 shots at the line and only got one field goal in the closing four minutes of the game.
NMSU made 9-of-11 of its free throw attempts to close out the game with the 71-58 victory.
New Mexico State now travels over to Reno, Nev. for the final game of its three-game road trip. The Aggies and the Wolf Pack tip off at 7:00 p.m. MDT in the Lawlor Events Center.
