New Mexico State basketball wins Conference USA debut versus UTEP
LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State basketball made its Conference USA debut with a 63-53 win against I-10 rival UTEP on Thursday night at the Pan American Center.
The Aggies, who never trailed in the second half, have won two straight, are 7-1 at home, and improved to 7-9 overall. UTEP falls to 8-7 overall and has lost two straight.
New Mexico State outrebounded the Miners 37-24, outscored UTEP 16-14 from the free throw line and outscored the Miners 30-22 in the paint.
Key moments in second half
The Miners cut the Aggie lead to 53-47 with 6:53 left in the game and had opportunities to get even closer but missed 4-of-6 free throws. Then Aggies post player Kaosi Ezeagu scored an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Aggies up 56-49 and the momentum swung back to NMSU.
The Miners also had two technical fouls in the second half that cost them points. The first technical cost them five points and saw NMSU go from a 35-28 lead to a 40-28 lead, and the second technical came after a basket by the Miners that led to four straight NMSU points and a 51-41 lead.
Aggies balanced on offense
Four NMSU players scored in double figures led by 15 points from guard Christian Cook. Forward Femi Odukale, guard Brandon Suggs and Ezeagu each scored 10. Ezeagu added seven rebounds and guard Jordan Rawls had four assists.
Hardy, Terrell, Jr. solid for UTEP
Miners guard Tae Hardy scored 21 points and made all six of his free throws and guard David Terrell, Jr. came off the bench and scored seven points in nearly 22 minutes off the bench.
Aggies put up solid first half
The Aggies used a 12-0 run to help give them a 28-22 lead heading into the break. The Aggies made 13-of-26 from the field, but 10 turnovers were a minus.
Odukale led the Aggies with nine points in the first half and forward Robert Carpenter added six points. New Mexico State scored 18 points in the paint and got 12 points from its bench.
The Miners made just 8-of-21 from the field and went to the foul line just twice, making both. Hardy led the Miners with 10 points.
What the winning coach said
"I'm proud of our guys, we are making progress and our guys are buying into what I am trying to sell," Aggies first-year coach Jason Hooten said. "We got 15 offensive rebounds and that's big for our team. We had one guy (Robert Carpenter) get six of them. UTEP is a physical team and we're becoming a tougher, grittier team. UTEP is well coached, I respect coach Joe Golding a great deal. We have 15 conference games left and they are all big."
What winning players said
"We showed we can win in different ways," Ezeagu said. "We only made three 3-pointers, but we found other ways to score, we played good defense and rebounded well."
Added Cook: "This was a big win for us. We got some confidence going after our win last week against California Baptist. We see the progress being made."
What the UTEP coach said
"Coach Hooten was a great hire for the NMSU program and he's doing a great job," Miners coach Joe Golding said. "There was a stretch in the second half where we had some chances to get closer. We got a good effort from David Terrell and I thought Kevin Kalu played well."
Up next
UTEP is home against Chicago State at 1 p.m. Sunday and New Mexico State is at Florida International on Jan. 11.
More: NMSU defeats Cal Baptist Robert Carpenter's powerful performance lifts New Mexico State past California Baptist
Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X (Formerly Twitter)
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New Mexico State continues trend upward, knocks off I-10 rival UTEP
