by LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State women’s basketball team moved over .500 for the first time this season after defeating Northern New Mexico College, 81-39, inside the Pan American Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Aggies (7-6) never trailed in the matchup with the Lady Eagles (9-8), who belong to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). By halftime NM State had already amassed a 25-point lead.
“I’m happy we got to play a lot of the kids,” Aggie head coach Mark Trakh said. “We kept our starters under 20 minutes, which is what we wanted to do. We got balanced scoring and we got to see kids who haven’t played a lot to see what we have going into conference play.”
The Aggies finished shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 45.8 from 3-point range. The defense forced 25 turnovers and only allowed a 25.4 shooting percentage from NNMC. The home team also controlled the inside, finishing with a 28-6 advantage in the paint.
Sophomore forward Kassandra Harris had half of those points in the paint. The transfer from Albuquerque marked NM State’s third double-double of the season after finishing with a career high in both points and rebounds, 14 and 10 respectively. Harris also added her first two assists as an Aggie, two steals and a blocked shot.
Not to be outdone, freshman Emily Hardin also marked a career high with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting including going 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. She also added two boards, an assist, a steal and a blocked shot.
“Kassandra and Emily really worked hard today,” Trakh said. “Kassandra played well inside and Emily hit some 3’s, I’m proud of both those kids.”
Junior Abby Scott (Warm Springs Tribe) also finished with 12 points after sinking a game-high four 3-pointers, leaving her one short of cracking the top 10 in the program’s all-time 3-pointers made list.
The Aggies marked the first six points of the game as the Eagles missed their first seven shots from the floor. NNMC would not hit their first bucket until a 3-pointer with 15 minutes left in the half. But the 3-point shot sparked six straight from the Eagles as they would tie up the game at six with 13:49 left in the opening frame.
NM State answered, however, and answered in a big way. Three-consecutive shots from beyond the arc, two from Sasha Weber and one from Hardin, began a 19-2 Aggie run over the next six and a half minutes. After a 3-pointer by Zaire Williams NM State saw itself with a 25-8 lead with 8:13 left in the half.
The Aggies would maintain their double-digit lead and after consecutive buckets underneath by Harris the NM State lead had grown to 20 at 38-18 with under three minutes left in the first 20 minutes.
Scott hit the final 3-pointer of the half for the Aggies, their seventh of the opening frame, with three seconds left to give NM State their biggest lead of the contest at 48-23 heading into the locker room.
The Aggies shot 50 percent both from the floor (17-34) and 3-point land (7-14) in the half. Harris had already tied her career high after marking 10 first-half points.
NM State held on to its 20-plus lead throughout the early portion of the second half and after four-straight points by NNMC the lead was once again at 25 points, 58-33, with 14:12 left in the contest.
The Aggie defense would clamp down from that point and put the game away, holding the Eagles at 33 points for almost nine minutes. The NM State offense, meanwhile, scored 16 points during that same span. The 16-0 run gave the Aggies an unsurmountable 41-point lead. NNMC finally ended the run after scoring with 5:39 left in the contest, but by then the game was well in hand for the home team.
Sunday’s game was the final one for NM State before beginning Western Athletic Conference play. The Aggies begin conference play by heading to Kansas City, Mo., to meet Missouri-Kansas City on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 1 p.m. (MT).
