Aggies look to take stranglehold of first in WAC

The New Mexico State men’s basketball team returns home tonight with the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title theirs for the taking.

As the first-place Aggies (20-4, 9-1) host Utah Valley (16-7, 5-3) tonight, they enjoy a two-game lead over their nearest chaser, Grand Canyon (14-9, 7-3), with six league games to play.

So the WAC coffin can’t be nailed shut even with a win tonight. But the pilot hole for the nail certainly has been drilled.

NMSU’s propensity for late-game heroics keeps paying off. The latest example was the Aggies’ 67-64 win over Grand Canyon on Saturday, holding off the hosts after blowing most of a 62-53 lead with 3:55 to play.

“We relaxed a little bit,” Aggies coach Chris Jans said on his postgame radio comments, and that likely is the biggest concern heading into the home stretch.

Four of the remaining six league games are at the Pan American Center. And the schedule gets softer as well. After the Aggies NET ranking of 59, next highest is Grand Canyon (87), and then after that, UVU at 118.

NMSU is 8-3 all time vs. the Wolverines, 4-1 at home.

Guard Terrell Brown is NMSU’s leading scorer at 12 points per game. It’s a modest figure, in part because the Aggies are one of the nation’s deepest teams and getting deeper.

Ivan Aurrecoechea (6-9, junior) returned last week from a right knee injury, and former NMMI star Trevelin Queen (6-6, guard) continues to make an impact since turning eligible Dec. 17. His offensive rebound of a missed free throw led to Aggie points that clinched the Grand Canyon game.

WOMEN: Like their male counterparts, the Aggies (17-6, 9-1) enjoy a two-game lead in the WAC standings as they face Utah Valley (1210, 6-3) in a matinee contest today in Orem, Utah.