Aggies look to rebound in Saturday skirmish with league foe Grand Canyon

Opening Tip
• NM State prepares for its first of two meetings with Grand Canyon this season as they travel to GCU Arena on Saturday with tip-off set for 2 p.m. MT.
• The Aggies have now compiled an impressive league record of 42-21 during Brooke Atkinson's tenure.
• All-time, the Aggies hoist a record of 11-5 against the Lopes and are 2-1 in the last three matchups. However, the Aggies fell to GCU in their most recent meeting, 52-61, on Jan. 16, 2021.
• Across the last eight years, the Aggies have dominated inside the Pan Am, but have only defeated the Lopes in Phoenix three times in seven attempts.
• The majority of the Lopes success against the Aggies has come within the last three years as the Aggies had only fallen once to Grand Canyon until the 2017-18 season.
• NM State and Grand Canyon split their series in Phoenix last season as the Aggies defeated GCU, 61-53 (OT), in the first matchup and then the Lopes returned the favor as they secured a 61-52 victory the following day.
• In GCU Head Coach Molly Miller's first season at the helm one season ago, she navigated her squad to an 8-4 record in league play and helped the Lopes make their first WAC Championship game appearance in program history.
• Head Coach Brooke Atkinson will lead one of the WAC's top rebounding teams into GCU Arena on Saturday as the Aggies rank first in the conference in rebounding margin, out-rebounding opponents by 5.3 boards per game.
• The Aggies also rank in the top five among WAC team in field goal percentage (3rd, .431), free throw percentage (3rd, .710), rebounds per game (5th, 37.33), scoring defense (5th, 62.7), scoring margin (4th, 5.8), scoring offense (4th, 68.5), three-point field goal defense (3rd, .301), turnover margin (4th, +1.47) and turnovers forced per game (4th, 17.80).
• NM State is led in scoring by graduate transfer Bigue Sarr who ranks seventh in the WAC in points per game (14.4) and fourth in rebounds per game (7.7). Sarr also posts a field goal percentage of 58.8 percent to rank first in the league and 13th in the nation in that category.
 
Scouting the Lopes | Roster | Schedule | Statistics
• The Lopes are coming off a 73-54 victory over Sam Houston and are now riding a four-game win streak and hoist a WAC record of 5-1 to sit at third in the current league standings.
• Against the Bearkats, GCU was led in scoring by UTRGV transfer Amara Graham who finished with 24 points, one shy of her season high.
• Graham also leads the Lopes in scoring on the season as she averages 12.6 points per game after leading the WAC in scoring last season by way of scoring at a 16.5 point per game clip with UT Rio Grande Valley.
• The Lopes' top rebounder is six-foot, one-inch tall graduate transfer Jay McChristine who pulls down 6.3 boards per contest.
• As a team, the Lopes' defense is among the stingiest in the league as they allow just over 61 points per game, fifth fewest in the WAC this season.
• Molly Miller's defense also forces turnovers at a clip of 14.3 per game to sit atop the conference in that category.
• One point of emphasis in order for the Aggies to leave with a win will be crashing the glass as the Lopes rank 12th out of 13 WAC schools in rebounds per game.
• The Lopes are coming off their most successful season since they first joined the WAC in 2013 and finished the year with an overall record of 20-10 in addition to going 10-6 in league play.
 
Last Time Out | NM State 64, Sam Houston 67 | Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022
• The Aggies suffered defeat at the hands of Chicago State as the Cougars used a 16-0 run in the final quarter of play to earn their first victory over the Aggies in program history.
• NM State led 59-43 with 9:18 left to play in the fourth, however, the Aggies went on a dry spell that lasted 5:24 seconds and allowed Chicago State to creep back into contention.
• The Aggies' defeat came in spite of one of Bigue Sarr's more dominant performances this season as she finished with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
• The Cougars were led by freshman superstar Aaliyah Collins who finished the game with 17 points and seven assists. Collins, who was named the USBWA Freshman of the Week last week, also finished the contest with four steals, including two that came in the closing six minutes of play.
• NM State also received double-digit scoring from Soufia Inoussa who finished with 13 points while adding four rebounds and finished the game with just one turnover in 27 minutes of play.
• Tayelin Grays also played solid minutes as she neared a double-double who finished with nine points and nine rebounds from her starting role.
• Against the Cougars, the Aggies shot under 50 percent for the first time in three outings as they finished 20-of-53 (.377) inside the Jones Convocation Center. Meanwhile, the Cougars finished with a 44.6 shooting percentage, including going 60 percent from the field in the fourth quarter.
• Chicago State also held the advantage in the both points off turnovers (20-10) and bench points (32-14).
 
Up Next
The Aggies will return home after this weekend as they host UT Rio Grande Valley in a make-up game on Monday, Jan. 31. The Vaqueros will head to Las Cruces after their originally scheduld trip on Jan. 8 was postponed.
 
Monday's contest versus UTRGV will mark the first of three consecutive weeks in which the Aggies will have three games in a seven-day span as a result of postponements from earlier this season.
 
Sights on Six
NM State will seek its sixth WAC regular season title since the 2014-15 season. The Aggies are 80-18 in conference play across the past seven seasons.
 
Preseason Picks
NM State was picked to finish in seventh place in the WAC Coaches' Poll while the media selected the Aggies to land in sixth this season.
 
The WAC media also selected junior guard Soufia Inoussa to the Second Team All-WAC list.
 
Bringing Home the Hardware
Following her final season with the Aggies, Aaliyah Prince earned Second Team All-WAC and WAC All-Defensive Team honors. Prince finished the season ranked 11th in the league in steals per game while ranking 13th in points per game.