Aggies are looking to rebound
Both NMJC teams must forfeit games
New Mexico State’s men’s basketball team is on the final road trip of the regular season today, and the Aggies desperately hope it goes better than the previous one.
The Aggies (22-4, 8-2 Western Athletic Conference) are in Edinburg, Texas, for a 6 p.m. tipoff against UT Rio Grande Valley (10-17, 2-8). Coach Paul Weir’s team will try to snap a two-game losing streak after a 20-game win streak had created some national buzz.
NMSU’s last two outings weren’t pretty. The win streak was snapped emphatically in a 72-53 defeat Feb. 9 at Cal State Bakersfield (18-7, 9-1), now the league leader by a game over the Aggies.
Two days later in Phoenix, Grand Canyon went on a 19-0 second-half run and pulled away for an 83-71 victory. After that defeat, Weir said that at least some of his players had “hit some walls mentality and physically.”
“We have to hit reset, change some things up, freshen these guys up and get back to a good where we can change our trajectory towards the end of the season,” Weir told the Las Cruces Sun-News.
In a quirk of the WAC schedule, tonight’s game is the first matchup of the season between the Aggies and Vaqueros. The two teams play again in Las Cruces on March 4, when the Aggies hope they still will have a shot at the regular-season championship.
There is the possibility of a fascinating finish if the Aggies win out and Bakersfield goes 3-1 with a loss at home in the regular-season finale to Grand Canyon. In that case, the Aggies and Bakersfield would finish tied for first place, all the head-tohead tiebreakers with each WAC team would be identical, and the next tiebreaker would be highest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). NMSU’s was 55 as of Friday; Bakersfield’s was 85. Each team has one road and three home games remaining.
First things first: UTRGV first-year coach Lew Hill has led his team to two more victories than it had all of the 201516 season, but its two conference wins were against lastplace Chicago State (6-21, 1-9).
NMSU WOMEN: The Aggies (18-6, 10-0) play their regularseason home finale today vs. UTRGV (16-10, 6-4). It is Senior Day for Aggies Tyler Ellis, Brianna Freeman, Moriah Mack, Brandee Walton and Tamera William.
NMJC: New Mexico Junior College announced Friday that it has to forfeit three men’s and women’s games and will be barred from postseason competition.
NMJC President Kelvin Sharp said the school “did not submit two (eligibility) reports,” self-reported the mistake, and an appeal to the NJCAA was denied.
“I regret that their rules are so inflexible that (the NJCAA) feels it has to penalize students and coaches even when it was the college itself which called attention to the mistakes in the first place.”
Top 25 women
(25) DRAKE 64, INDIANA
STATE 45: In Terre Haute, Ind., Brenni Rose made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points and the Bulldogs (21-4, 14-0 Missouri Valley) defeated the Sycamores (12-12, 6-7) Friday in the Bulldogs’ first game since making it into the Top 25 for the first time in over 16 years. (11) OREGON STATE 54, COLORADO 49: In Boulder, Colo., Sydney Wiese had 14 points, Kolbie Orum added 10 and the Beavers (24-3, 13-2 Pac-12) used a late push to get past Colorado (14-12, 4-11).