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But the Aggies came out and hung with a talented New Mexico State team for the first 13 minutes. Then it got away and turned real ugly for the visitors.
In a battle of the Western Athletic Conference Aggies, it was those wearing Crimson and White that reigned. NMSU used a surge before halftime to get some breathing room, blew it open to start the second half and cruised to a 100-70 win Saturday at the Pan American Center in front of 7,014 fans.
“We just got our butts kicked, that’s what it boils down to,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “It was no fun. They (Southern Aggies) deserve all the credit.”
The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak — the longest since the 2003-04 season when USU won 17 in a row. It also was the most points given up by the Northern Aggies since these same other Aggies won a double-overtime contest in Logan, 104-100, on Feb. 13, 1995.
USU (15-6, 5-1 WAC) was without four players who were suspended and sent home Friday night. That pretty much wiped out the Northern Aggies’ bench, as Stephen DuCharme, Desmond Stephens and Pooh Williams were not with the team. Redshirting freshman Jaxon Myaer was the fourth USU player suspended.
“As badly as we got beat here, I can’t feel like our personnel would have changed much,” Morrill said. “Sure, you’d like to have all your guys. You’ll have to ask them how they feel about it back in Logan. But I don’t feel like when you get beat by 30, I can sit and say if we had all our personnel it would have made a difference.”
Morrill used all eight players that were left. Freshman Matt Formisano, who came into the game averaging 3.6 minutes a game, played 25 minutes. Tyler Newbold played a career-high 34 minutes, while Kris Clark matched his career-high with 37 minutes. It also didn’t help that Tai Wesley fouled out with 8:57 still left to play.
“Coach told us we are 5-1 and we’re still in good position to be a top contender in the conference, so we can’t get too low,” Newbold said. “We got to come back and practice hard next week.”
While USU could have used some help Saturday, it’s doubtful the absent trio would have made too much of a difference.
NMSU (11-11, 5-2) bounced back from a disappointing home loss on Thursday against Nevada in a big way. Justin Hawkins led the way with a game-best 23 points and seven rebounds, as five Southern Aggie players reached double figures. Jonathan Gibson, who was scoreless on Thursday against the Wolf Pack, netted 22 points.
Martin Iti grabbed a game-best nine rebounds as NMSU owned the glass, outrebounding USU 38-25.
“They pretty much dominated every phase of the game,” Morrill said. “Boy, were they good tonight. They are big and quick and athletic, and they cause havoc with their press, and they shot it unbelievably from three.”
NMSU shot 54.9 percent from the field, but was better beyond the arc, making 11-of-18 (61.1 percent) from 3-point land. USU made 45.1 percent of hits shots for the game and was 10-of-20 from long range after starting the game by hitting
f-10 in the first half.“We didn’t do what we needed to on defense to give ourselves a chance,” said Carroll, who scored 17 points on 4-of-12 shooting. “... We missed shots and gave up layups on the other end. Our transition defense was really poor, starting with me. I didn’t get out and find my guy a number of times.”
Newbold led the Northern Aggies with a team and career-best 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range. He also led the team on the boards with seven, a career-high mark.
“Tyler played great,” Morrill said. “... I couldn’t be more pleased with his play. I thought Matt Formisano, who hasn’t played much, did a nice job, as well.”
Kris Clark chipped in a career-high 11 points and dished out seven assists. Gary Wilkinson added 10 points.
Newbold opened the game by hitting two early 3-pointers as USU jumped out to a 10-6 lead three minutes into the contest.
After three lead changes and two ties, Newbold sparked a 12-3 Northern Aggie surge with his third trey of the game. Clark drained two long-range bombs, and Newbold capped the run with his fourth 3-pointer to give the visitors their biggest lead of the game, 24-15, with 12:19 left in the first half.
“I was feeling the groove on my shot tonight,” Newbold said. “That’s a good sign, but all for not when you get beat this bad. I would rather not score at all and win.”
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