Aggies extend winning streak NMSU tops Northern New Mexico for 19th straight ‘W’
RIO RANCHO — It wasn’t like anyone expected a real basketball game to break out on Monday night at Rio Rancho’s Santa Ana Star Center.
Least of all the New Mexico State Aggies, or so it appeared.
NMSU, after all, was simply playing a goodwill game against Northern New Mexico College. It was a way for the Aggies to give Albuquerque-area fans a peek at one of the nation’s hottest teams. For much of the night, however, New Mexico State seemed content to hide behind the curtain of its glitzy winning streak.
“I’m not an excuse guy; I believe excuses are for losers,” said first-year coach Paul Weir, after his Aggies (21-2) had carved out a 98-75 win to extend the nation’s second longest winning streak to 19.
“We had a good evening on offense. I never really lose sleep over our offense … But we just struggled on the defensive end, pretty much consistently all through the night. It’s very alarming for me. We can’t have nights off on the defensive end ever. Hopefully, tonight is a really big wake-up call for us.”
While there was never truly a sense that New Mexico State was in serious trouble against the 4-21 Eagles — an NAIA team that lost 16 straight games this season (not counting a 97-73 drubbing at Northern Colorado that was an exhibition for NNMC) — it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t exactly thrilled to be playing a home game some 250 miles from the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, especially after being on the road since Wednesday.
“Like coach said, no excuses,” said
NMSU senior guard Ian Baker, who was 9-of-16 from the field and had a gamehigh 27 points in 26 minutes of play. “At the end of the day, it just comes down to effort. We just have to buckle down on defense and get some stops.”
It took until midway through the second half before the crowd of 2,033 probably stopped thinking there was a chance of seeing the season’s biggest shocker, but eventually order was restored. The Aggies — who received votes for the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time all season on Monday — led just 20-19 with eight minutes left in the first half before going on a rim-rattling, jumpshot swishing 18-0 run. Done deal, right? Nope. NNMC wanted to make another deal.
And the Eagles kept playing some pretty salty cards — including a halfdozen 3-of-a-kinds.
Sophomore Malik Woods-Williams, a star for Las Cruces High, had a pair of those 3s, and helped the Eagles pull within 43-36 at the half.
And Northern New Mexico wasn’t finished.
After Adrian Infante had a 3-pointer and a nifty scoop layup and Hasan Tucker scored on a three-point play, NMSU’s lead was just 62-57 with more than 10 minutes remaining.
Baker then took over with drives and jumpers while hitting all six foul shots.
STAR TREATMENT: NMSU school president Garrey Carruthers and athletic director Mario Moccia helped host a meet-and-greet before the game in a Star Center hospitality room with a buffet and beverages.
“I think, like anything, you’ve got to do things consistently to be able to build up a crowd in an event like this,” Moccia said. “This, being year 2, fans were excited to do this. They get to see a (21-2) team in their backyard with the nation’s second longest winning streak.”
Moccia admitted the game was a difficult peg to squeeze into the overall scheduling board, and Monday was about the best opportunity — despite NMSU coming off a two-game road trip in which it swept Seattle University and Utah Valley to run its Western Athletic Conference to 7-0. But it was very beneficial to the program.
“To be honest, it wasn’t like Paul (Weir) was doing cartwheels,” Moccia said with a smile. “But that’s where Paul and I have a great relationship. He knew it was best for the school.”
FUTURE AGGIE: Rio Rancho senior Josh Foley, the state’s top running back this past football season, was at the meet-and-greet with brother Tristen and father Dan.
“I wanted to meet some of the people from Las Cruces and the school,” said Josh, who verbally committed to sign with NMSU’s football program on Wednesday. “This was great. They really were friendly and treated me really well. I’m excited for Wednesday.”