Aggies take on Stephen F. Austin in WAC showdown at Pan Am

THE OPENING TIP
• Standing in the way of NM State securing at least a share of its fourth WAC regular-season title under head coach Chris Jans is SFA - another squad who is still mathematically alive to hoist the WAC championship trophy.
• Those two teams will oppose one another Wednesday night in the Pan American Center. Tip-off for the Aggies' penultimate home game of the 2021-22 campaign is set for 7:00 p.m.
• The second all-time matchup between the Aggies and Lumberjacks is set to be streamed nationwide on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Adam Young and Joe Garza will handle play-by-play and analysis responsibilities on those platforms as well as on Comcast New Mexico and Bally Sports Arizona Plus.
• Over the airwaves, legendary radio play-by-play man Jack Nixon will set up shop courtside to call the action.
• The play-by-play and analysis of the nation's 14th-longest tenured NCAA Division I men's basketball voice can be heard on 99.5 Zia Country FM in Las Cruces, N.M., and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.
• Affiliate stations of the Aggie Sports Network can be tuned in to in Artesia, N.M. (990 AM), Carlsbad, N.M. (1240 AM), Gallup, N.M. (94.9 FM), Alamogordo, N.M. (103.7 FM) and El Paso, Texas (1380 AM). All of those stations will also carry Nixon's commentary of Wednesday night's tilt.

FAST BREAK POINTS
• NM State sits alone in the top spot of the WAC standings and is within striking distance of claiming the 2021-22 WAC regular season crown. The Aggies can clinch at least a share of the crown as well as the number-one seed for the upcoming WAC Tournament with a win on Wednesday.
• Dating back to 2013, NM State has emerged as the victors in each of their last 15 regular season games played in the month of March.
• NM State head coach Chris Jans is a perfect 7-0 in regular season games during the month of March as the Aggies' bench boss. Against WAC teams in March, Jans is the owner of a 15-1 record and overall he's 15-3 in the month as NM State's head coach.
• NM State's 23 wins are the 20-most among all NCAA Division I men's basketball teams this season as well as the most by any WAC team.
• NM State has won its last 32 home games against WAC opponents dating back 2017. The Aggies' last loss to a WAC team in the Pan American Center came on Feb. 23, 2017, when they dropped an 84-72 decision to Utah Valley.
• Since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, NM State owns an 87-4 (.956) record in WAC home games. Those four losses came by a combined 34 points (an average of 8.4 per game).
• NM State head coach Chris Jans is 62-12 (.838) in regular-season WAC games as the Aggies' head coach. Included in that record is a perfect 30-0 (1.000) showing against WAC squads inside NM State's home venue of the Pan American Center.
• NM State's .838 winning percentage in WAC regular season games under Jans is the nation's second-best in-conference winning percentage figure since 2017-18. Only Gonzaga's (76-3, .962) is higher.
• With a win at SFA on Saturday, Jan. 22, NM State senior forward Johnny McCants overtook Ian Baker for the highest number of wins in the history the program (111). Baker, who suited up for NM State from 2014-17, amassed 110 wins through the course of his storied Aggie career, but McCants is slowly increasing the number of wins on his resume with 118 to his credit.
• The second half has been a strength of the Aggies all season long. NM State has outscored its foes 1125-937 (+188) in the second half - good for an average of 7.0 points per game. NM State has outscored its opponent by 15 or more in the final frame six times this season, too. Only Arizona, Colorado State, Gonzaga, Kentucky and St. Mary's have exceeded those second-half scoring stats put up by the Aggies.
• High-scoring guard Teddy Allen currently leads the WAC and ranks 19th nationally in scoring at a clip of 20.0 points per game. Allen has put in 30 or more points four times this season which are the most 30+ point games by an Aggie in Chris Jans' tenure as head coach. Those four 30+ point games are the most by an Aggie in a single season since Troy Gillenwater went for 30 or more four times in the Aggies' 2010-11 campaign.
• Currently the Aggies have four players on their roster - Teddy Allen, Johnny McCants, Jabari Rice and Donnie Tillman - who have amassed 1,000 or more points in their respective NCAA Division I careers. Just three other programs
- UAB (six), Notre Dame (five) and Florida (five) have more players on their 2021-22 rosters with 1,000 or more career points. NM State is one of 14 programs around the nation who have four 1,000-point scores on its roster.
• In addition to in the program's 1,000-point club, McCants has also jumped into the program's top-ten career rebounders. As of this writing, McCants has 721 to his credit which is the ninth-most by any Aggie player in the history of the program.
• Of the Aggies' four 1,000-point scorers, two of them - Johnny McCants and Jabari Rice - have piled up all of their points at NM State. McCants' 1,009 career points are the 35th-most on the Aggies' all-time scoring charts while Rice's 1,050 points put him 29th on that list.
• Chris Jans is 24-4 (.857) in games directly after a loss as the Aggies' head coach.

• Wednesday night's WAC game is the third since March 5, 2020, featuring a pair of 20-win teams going at it. Both of the previous two games have featured NM State and the Aggies are 2-0 in such games. 

MISCELLANEOUS & MILESTONES
• NM State is two wins away from reaching the 25-win mark for the 13th time in the history of the program. The Aggies won 25 or more games in each of Chris Jans' first three seasons as the program's bench boss.
• NM State's collective field goal percentage of .459 ranks 84th in the nation and is the second-best in the WAC.
• The Aggies' rebounding margin of +7.4 is the 13th-best in the nation as well as the second-best in the WAC.
• NM State ranks 16th nationally in terms of field goal percentage defense. The Aggies are allowing their opponents to shoot just 39.0-percent from the floor this season which is the second-best among all WAC teams.
• In one of his most recent games, redshirt junior guard Jabari Rice put in 21 points as NM State won at WAC foe SFA (Jan. 22). When Rice scores 20 or more points in a game, NM State is 10-1 (.909).
• High-scoring guard Teddy Allen leads NM State and the WAC in scoring at a rate of 19.6 points per game and also ranks 62nd nationally in free throw percentage (.849). The Phoenix, Ariz., product also sits among the top 60 players nationally in field goal attempts (59th, 400).
• Now in his fifth season in an NM State uniform, Johnny McCants has broken into the program's top-ten leaders in blocked shots. McCants, a Las Cruces, N.M., product has 119 rejections to his credit as a collegian which are the seventh-most all-time by any Aggie. McCants is one of just four Aggies in program history who have amassed 1,000 or more points, 700 or more rebounds and 100 or more blocked shots.
• Teddy Allen has claimed WAC Player of the Week honors on four occasions through the 2021-22 season. That's the most by an Aggie since Zach Lofton picked up four such citations in the 2017-18 campaign. The only Aggie who has racked up more WAC Player of the Week honors than Allen is Pascal Siakam (five in 2016-17).
• With a strong push at the tail end of the Aggies' regular season, Allen could break into the program's top-ten single-season scoring list. He has 550 to his credit at the moment, putting him 38 points away from matching Daniel Mullings (588) for the 10th-best single-season point total in program lore.
• Each of the Aggies' best three-point shooting performances this season have come on the road. NM State has shot 50-percent or better from long range in a game three times this season - at SFA (14-of-28 on Jan. 22), at Grand Canyon (13-of-25 on Feb. 19) and at Dixie State (8-of-15 on Feb. 10).

LAST TIME OUT | NM State 59, at Chicago State 61 | Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022
• Playing without the likes of Johnny McCants, Yuat Alok, Marchelus Avery, Mario McKinney Jr., and Nate Pryor, NM State found itself short-handed from tip-off and wound up on the wrong end of a 61-59 decision at Chicago State Saturday afternoon in the Windy City.
• The setback marked just the third time this season in which the Aggies were held under 60 points. It also put an end to the team's three-game winning streak and prevented it from clinching at least a share of the 2021-22 WAC regular-season crown.
• Brandon Betson, who netted a game-high 17 points, sank a game-winning driving layup with 2.4 seconds to go to give the Cougars their first win over the Aggies since 2014.
• Jabari Rice, who played all 40 minutes of the tilt, finished with a team-high 15 points and flirted with a triple-double by adding seven rebounds and seven assists.
• Rice hiked his career point total to 1,050 with his 15-point outing, putting him in 30th-place on the program's all-time scoring list. The Houston, Texas, product needs just two more points to move past Brandon Mason (1999-03) into
29th place.
• Virshon Cotton provided a suitable spark off the bench for NM State which fell behind by as many as 12 points in the showdown. Making his first on-court appearance in an NM State game since Thursday, Jan. 20, the Milwaukee,
Wis., product matched his season-high with 11 points while adding three assists and a pair of steals.
• NM State held the lead for just 2:40 in the second half. The Aggies' largest lead was three points, 59-56, with 1:52 to go before Chicago State ended the game on a 5-0 surge.
• Clayton Henry turned in a career-high five steals in the Aggies' loss, making him the second NM State player this season to rack up five of more steals in a game.
• Teddy Allen pushed his streak of double-digit scoring games to 10 by finishing with 10 points on a 3-of-9 clip from the field.

LAST TIME OUT vs. SFA | NM State 72, at SFA 58 | Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022
• Coming off the bench for the first time in an NM State uniform, Teddy Allen gave fans in Texas' oldest town their money's worth by striking for a game-high 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting to lead NM State to a 72-58 victory over SFA in the first meeting between the two programs.
• Allen slung in a career-high seven three-pointers in the win and was aided by Jabari Rice who turned in a 21-point outing on 7-of-13 shooting. It marked the second time this season in which two NM State players went for 20 or more points in a single game.
• Three-point shooting and rebounding were two of the primary ingredients in the Aggies' recipe for success in The House that Chaz HurleyTM built. NM State canned a season-high 14 three-pointers while shooting 50-percent from long range in the process. That three-point field goal percentage was NM State's best of the season and the eighth-best in a single game in Chris Jans' tenure as the Aggies' head coach.
• Both Rice and Donnie Tillman finished with eight rebounds in the Aggies' lopsided win. Those 16 total boards represented over one-third (34-percent) of the team's 47 on the afternoon as the Aggies enjoyed a 47-29 (+18) edge on the glass.
• A force down low, Johnny McCants made sure nothing came easy for the 'Jacks on their home court. The Las Cruces, N.M., product matched his career high by coming up with four of the Aggies' six blocked shots in the victory.
• NM State moved to 24-4 (.857) in games directly following a loss in Jans' tenure as head coach. NM State has not dropped consecutive games since suffering three-straight setbacks from Jan. 29-Feb. 5, 2021.

SCOUTING SFA | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• No team in the WAC has been hotter as of late than the Lumberjacks as head coach Kyle Keller's gang of hard-rockin' cats rolls into Las Cruces for the first time in program history armed with the nation's ninth-longest active winning streak.
• Winners of each of their last eight games, the 'Jacks needed last-second heroics in order to emerge as the victors last Thursday and last Saturday. Sadaidriene Hall canned a step-back jumper with less than two seconds remaining to lift SFA to a 73-71 win over Abilene Christian Saturday afternoon while Jaylin Jackson-Posey swished a pair of free throws with 1.7 seconds to go Thursday in a 69-67 home win over Sam Houston.
• Though Hall and Jackson-Posey were the heroes for each of the 'Jacks' last two games, Gavin Kensmil has been SFA's star since the 2021-22 season started. The interior threat leads the 'Jacks in scoring (16.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.8 per game) while sitting atop the WAC charts in field goal percentage (59.9-percent). Kensmil is a major threat to get to the foul line, too, as his 188 total attempts from that distance lead the WAC and are the 10th-most by any NCAA Division I player so far this season.
• Calling the action in the backcourt is senior David Kachelries who averaged 10.0 points per game while leading the team in assists (3.7 per game). With Kachelries leading the offensive attack, SFA leads the WAC and ranks 29th nationally with a field goal percentage of 47.5-percent.
• The defensive prowess of SFA hasn't changed one bit since the mid-2010s. The 'Jacks force an average of 18.18 turnovers per game - the nation's fourth-highest rate while their 9.2 steals per game rank 12th in the land.

THIS DATE IN NM STATE HISTORY
• For the third time in his tenure with NM State, head coach Chris Jans will be leading the Aggies into battle on March 2. Jans is the owner of a 2-0 record (both WAC games) on this date.
• Last year, NM State bested UTRGV by a 69-51 tally inside the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
• NM State is 2-4 (.333) all-time in WAC contests played on March 2.
• The Aggies' first game on this date came in 1917 - a 60-15 triumph over Western New Mexico in Las Cruces.

COMING UP NEXT
• Four of the Aggies' seniors - Yuat Alok, Clayton Henry, Johnny McCants and Donnie Tillman - are set to make their Pan Am Center curtain calls Saturday night. NM State takes on Utah Valley at 7:00 p.m. that night in the regular-season finale for both clubs. In addition to the game, the 2022 US Bank/NM State Athletics Hall of Fame class - a trio which includes William Benjamin (men's basketball) the late Bob Kelly (football) and Maria Roth (volleyball) - will be formally recognized as the institution's latest group of Hall of Fame inductees.