Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

'LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State men's basketball team started its final four-game home stand with a 100-68 win over Northern New Mexico.

All five Aggie (19-8) starters were in double-figures with junior forward Bandja Sy leading the way with a career-high 19 points.

Senior center Hamidu Rahman added 18 points and eight rebounds. With the first basket of the second half, Rahman became the 30th member of the 1,000-career point club at NM State. He is the third Aggie to join the club this season with redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines and senior guard Hernst Laroche. Rahman also moved into third all-time on NM State's career blocked shots list after blocking a pair of shots. He now has 117 rejections and surpassed Charles Goza.

Freshman guard Daniel Mullings scored 14 points, and junior forward Tyrone Watson supplied 13 in the Aggies' first 100-point game since the 2008-09 season. Laroche was also in double-digits with 12 points. He had four assists and a steal, which is No. 200 in his career.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Hernst Laroche took over late as the New Mexico State men's basketball team silenced the crowd in Logan, UT for the first time since 2006 winning 80-69 on Saturday afternoon. The senior point guard's big night included a game-changing play that saw him trip on defense, roll, pop up and block a three point shot by Preston Medlin, steal the ball and take it all the way down the other end for a layup to put the Aggies up by six points with 2:35 left to play.

That outstanding individual effort would propel the Aggies to a 9-2 run to end the game as part of a larger 15-3 run over the final six minutes.

The Aggies led by five at the break thanks to a 15-2 run over the final six minutes after Utah State had gone on a 14-0 run to take a 31-23 lead with 6:15 left. Freshman guard Daniel Mullings would end the UtAgs' run with back-to-back buckets, the first coming on an alley-oop from Hernst Laroche followed by a Mullings steal and breakaway dunk to pull the Aggies to back within four points. USU would get a layup from Jordan Stone to go back up by six points but the Aggies would lock down the northern Aggies the rest of the way while getting three consecutive free throws and then back-to-back threes from Bandja Sy giving the Aggies a 38-33 lead at the break.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

MOSCOW, ID - The New Mexico State men's basketball team suffered a one-point loss at Idaho, 59-58, to snap a five-game win streak over the Vandals.

The Aggies fell to 17-8 and 6-3 in WAC play. Redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines and senior center Hamidu Rahman led the team 12 points each. Senior guard Hernst Laroche and junior forward Tyrone Watson supplied nine points each. Watson also had a career-high eight assists.

NM State had a late lead but Idaho inched its way back and pulled within one, 58-57, with 1:53 to play. The Aggies were without Laroche for the final 2:08 after he fouled out on an offensive foul. NM State maintained a lead until Idaho hit a jumper with five seconds to go.

In the second half, the Aggies used a 12-2 run to take a 51-43 lead with 9:21 to play. The NM State front court led the way in the rally with six points from McKines, four from junior forward Bandja Sy and two from Rahman.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: Bill Harty

Saturday marked the beginning of the second half of the WAC season for both New Mexico State and visiting Louisiana Tech. On January 7 at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, the Aggies defeated the Bulldogs 83-73, in a game that the Aggies led by 6 at the half and by double digits much of the second half. But after losing at home to both Idaho and Utah State the following week, the Bulldogs have been much improved, winning both at Hawai’i and San Jose State, and at home over Fresno State, before losing in the final seconds to conference leader Nevada. No one in Las Cruces was taking this game for granted.

The Aggies and Bulldogs have a relatively brief history: one non-conference Aggie victory in Las Cruces in 1977; one Aggie victory in Ruston in 2001, lone year their memberships in the Sun Belt overlapped (being in different divisions, they only played once); and thirteen WAC games before this season, the Aggies winning ten of them and all the Las Cruces games, including one in the 2007 WAC tournament.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State men's basketball team began the second half of WAC play with an 83-72 win over Louisiana Tech.

The Aggies (17-7, 6-2 WAC) ended the game with a 20-5 run to hold off the Bulldogs (11-12, 3-5). Senior center Hamidu Rahman had a team-high 20 points, which tied his season-high mark, on a 7-of-10 performance from the field. It was the fourth 20-point showing of his career. Freshman guard Daniel Mullings added 15 points, with 14 scored in the second half including eight consecutive in the late Aggie run, and seven rebounds.

Redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines posted his 14th double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while junior forward Tyrone Watson had a game-high seven assists, which tied a career high.

Utilizing their size advantage, the Aggies had a 44-40 lead at halftime. NM State scored 20 points in the paint with a 14-0 advantage in second-chance points, and Rahman led the Crimson and White with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: Bill Harty

Wednesday in Las Cruces saw a visit to New Mexico State by the Roadrunners of California State University at Bakersfield. The Roadrunners played their first Division I season five years ago and have yet to find a conference home, although the Big West has been hearing from them regularly. There are only three independent Division I teams this year. Two of those have found conferences for next season: Longwood received the long sought invitation from the Big South, and Seattle will be joining New Mexico State in the WAC. Assuming the survival of the Great West—that is questionable given the recent attrition there—CSUB will be the only independent next season.

The NCAA rules for moving up to Division I now require a conference invitation to be able to make the move. The two schools that have announced that they are beginning that process next year already have joined established conferences: Nebraska-Omaha will join the Summit League and Northern Kentucky the Atlantic Sun. CSUB may literally be the last of the independents in Division I basketball.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines became a member of the 1,000-career point and 1,000-career rebound club and led the New Mexico State men's basketball team to a 78-57 win over CSU Bakersfield.

The Aggies improved to 16-7 overall with three players in double figures. They have a 5-2 WAC record before the second round of conference play begins Saturday.

With his 12th rebound of the game with 7:45 minutes remaining, McKines joined the elite club. He is only the second player in school history along with Sam Lacey, second active player in the NCAA (T.J. Robinson, Long Beach State) and 12th player in the WAC history to achieve the feat.

McKines also had his 13th double-double of the year and 40th of his career with a game-high 20 points and 14 rebounds. Freshman guard Daniel Mullings scored 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while senior guard Hernst Laroche supplied 10 points and four assists. For the second consecutive game, sophomore center Tshilidzi Nephawe blocked four shots.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Junior forward Tyrone Watson sank two free throws with 14 seconds remaining in regulation to seal a four-point win, 60-56, for the New Mexico State men's basketball team over Fresno State in the annual Lou Henson Classic.

Redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines scored a game-high 20 points along with 10 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the year for the Aggies (15-7, 5-2). Watson, senior center Hamidu Rahman and sophomore center Tshilidzi Nephawe supplied eight points each.

The Aggies posted a 35-27 halftime advantage behind 14 points from McKines. Rahman added six points, while senior guard Hernst Laroche scored five. In the first half, Nephawe had a season-high four blocked shots.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: Bill Harty

Since there’s been no 800GP story on a WAC game since Sam Wasson and I both covered the NMSU-Idaho game nearly two weeks ago, the conference race has begun to take shape. Tonight’s opponents in Las Cruces are the clear favorites: Nevada came in unbeaten with a 5-0 record including key road wins at both Utah State and Idaho; last week the Wolf Pack won two games at home, defeating future Summit League member Nebraska-Omaha and conference foe Fresno State. New Mexico State is 4-1 with two road wins of its own, but those came against Louisiana Tech and San Jose State, two of the bottom three teams in the standings. The Aggies last week took them to San Jose for an easy victory, and to Hawai'i, where they trailed by 19 points in the second half, only to have their monster comeback (30 points in the final eight minutes) come up short by four.

Trailing these two in the standings are Hawai'i and Idaho at 3-2 each, Utah State and Louisiana Tech at 2-3, Fresno State at 1-4, and San Jose State at 0-5. One key game last weekend had Idaho hold the home court against Utah State in both teams’ only conference game, giving the USU Aggies their third conference defeat; the Aggies also lost at future conference foe Seattle. The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs surprise weekend sweep including a win at Hawai’i, aided by the Thursday illnesses of two Hawai’i starters. Fresno State’s Bulldogs (there seems to be a shortage of team nicknames in the WAC, we seem to keep reusing them) also won a non-Division I game against Cal State-San Marcos last week. On Monday of this week, San Jose’s Spartans got a much needed victory over Cal State-Bakersfield. After this weekend’s full slate of games, the conference season will be half complete, as each team will have played seven of the fourteen WAC contests.

New Mexico State and Nevada have never met in a non-conference game. The Aggies won thirteen of eighteen Big West games between the schools between 1993 and 2000, splitting the two conference tournament contests. The Wolf Pack has won ten of the sixteen games since the Aggies joined the WAC for the 2006 season, but the Aggies have won all four WAC tournament games, including two in Reno and last year in Las Vegas, and three of the last four games. In Las Cruces however, the Wolf Pack has won two of the prior three years.  Continue Reading This Post >>