Aggies rally big, draw crowd of 11,889

LAS CRUCES — The New Mexico State men’s basketball team rallied from a 13-point deficit Saturday night, defeating Seattle University 59-53 for the Aggies’ 11th straight win.

An announced crowed of 11,889 at the Pan American Center saw NMSU coach Chris Jans secure his 50th victory since taking over the Aggie program. He has reached the 50-win mark faster than any other coach in NMSU history.

Saturday’s victory was also the program’s 15th straight home conference victory.

With the house that Lou Henson built packed, the Aggies (224, 11-1 WAC) had a tough time finding the bottom of the net the first 12-plus minutes of action and was shooting just 14.3-percent (2-of-14) from the field at the 7:02 media break. To make

matters worse, Seattle (13-12, 1-9 WAC) converted six Aggie turnovers into 12 points for the 20-8 lead.

New Mexico State’s offense finally woke up out of a media timeout. AJ Harris got things going with four straight points. Trevelin Queen than scored eight of NMSU’s next 10 points, including a put-back with 29 seconds left in the half to cut Seattle’s lead to 29-22 at halftime.

After the break, the Aggies got 3-pointers from Queen and Harris to get within 36-29 before the Redhawks answered with a quick 4-0 run to push their advantage to 40-29. However, a steal and a dunk from Johnny McCants followed by a 3 from JoJo Zamora cut the Seattle lead to 40-34 with 11:24 to play.

Out of a timeout, New Mexico State went on 7-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Terrell Brown, to bring the Aggies within 42-41 with 8:30 left.

Brown tied it at 47-47 after hitting two free throws, but the Redhawks went back up 49-47 on the next possession. A Clayton Henry 3-pointer then gave New Mexico State its first lead, 50-49, since the Aggies led 1-0 at the outset.

From there, a Queen layup and two free throws by Brown stretched the NMSU lead to five. The Aggies held Seattle to just one field goal in the final 5:07 minutes.

Queen led the Aggies with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting with five rebounds and a whopping six blocks. Harris added 12 points and three assists.