Down but never out: Aggie men battle back from 18 down to beat Pac-12's Washington State

PULLMAN, Wash. - At approximately 8:20 p.m. PT Wednesday night, the NM State men's basketball team had - according to the popular ESPN win probability graph - a 0.2-percent chance of victory.

Roughly 44 minutes later, those chances improved a little bit.

Showing a level of toughness and resolve few programs in the nation have in their possession, NM State clawed back from an 18-point second half deficit and exited Beasley Coliseum with a hard-fought 64-61 triumph over Washington State.

The win, NM State's fourth in a row, was made possible by the play of Jabari Rice and Teddy Allen as well as a defensive effort which left the Cougars reeling.

FIRST HALF
• Outside of Rice's three-pointer on the Aggies' first possession, NM State didn't hold the lead for much of the first frame.
• Washington State answered Rice's trifecta with an 18-6 run capped off by Efe Abogidi's powerful dunk which hiked the hosts' lead to 18-9 with 11:22 left in the half.
• Following that flush, it was the Aggies' turn to go on a run. NM State scored the game's next 10 points, taking its only other lead of the half when Allen punched home a breakaway slam to make matters 19-18.
• Undeterred by that slam from Allen - or the other one he had in the first half that came on a challenging Abogidi - the Cougars closed on the frame on a 17-3 run to take a 35-22 lead into their locker room at the break.
• NM State had just a single field goal make in the last 4:30 of the half while Noah Williams put in eight points for the hosts on their surge to end the opening stanza.
• Though neither team shot above 37.5-percent in the opening frame, Washington State went 7-of-9 from the foul line and splashed six three-pointers to open up its double-digit advantage at the break. NM State, meanwhile, was just 1-of-8 (12.5-percent) from long range and 3-of-6 (50-percent) at the foul line following the first 20 minutes of play.

SECOND HALF
• The low point of the Aggies' night came when Noah Williams splashed a three-pointer that put the visitors at a 44-26 disadvantage with 17:51 to go. From there, however, Rice decided he had had enough and decided to do something about his team's seemingly insurmountable deficit.
• Fifteen of the Aggies' next 17 points were put in by the guard out of Houston, Texas, and with 9:07 to go he had willed NM State back to within six, 51-45.
• Washington State managed to push its lead back to nine, 56-47, following a long ball by Michael Flowers with 7:31 remaining. That field goal make by the Cougars, though, proved to their second-to-last of the contest.
• Refusing to quit, NM State turned its defense up to a level the Cougars couldn't match and closed the game on a 17-5 run to secure the victory. With all eyes on Rice, that opened things up for the second member of the Aggies' potent backcourt scoring tandem.
• Allen pumped in seven-straight points for the Aggies and his lone three-pointer of the night with 3:49 left knotted matters at 58-all. It was also the game's first tie since the scoreboard read 9-9 with 14:22 left in the first frame.
• Allen located Will McNair Jr., for a wide-open layup with 3:08 left that put the visitors ahead 60-58. The Cougars countered with two free throw makes to knot things up again, but on the very next possession Allen was fouled by Williams on a three-point try and proceeded to put the visitors back on top by swishing his trio of tries at the charity stripe.
• Clinging to a 63-60 lead with 1:56 left, NM State let Washington State score just one point the rest of the way. The Cougars went 0-for-3 from the field in the last 116 seconds of the tilt and got whistled for a five-second violation while trying to inbound the ball with 24 seconds left.
• Williams' game-tying try from long range with seconds remaining bounced off the back of the rim, leaving Rice to corral the rebound and run out the clock.

KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Rice's game-high 22 points included mostly came in an otherworldly second half that didn't see the Houston, Texas, product misfire from the field. After shooting just 1-of-4 in the opening 20 minutes of action, Rice took his game to another level and quite literally didn't miss in the final frame. He finished with 19 points in the deciding half on a perfect 4-of-4 performance from the floor while sinking all eight of his foul shots, too.
• While Rice captained the Aggies' comeback bid, it was Allen and McNair who actually gave the visitors the lead late. The former broke a 60-60 deadlock by swishing three free throw tries with 1:56 left which accounted for the last of his 18 points while his five assists were a game-high and just two shy of the Cougars' total for the game (seven). McNair Jr., meanwhile, totaled 10 markers which complimented his game-high eight rebounds.
• In addition to his huge free throw make in the final minute, McCants was his usual all-around excellent self. The Las Cruces, N.M., product finished with five points, two rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and a pair of steals in 33 minutes of action.
• Flowers finished with a team-high 15 points for Washington State which had four players total double-digits in the scoring column. In addition to Flowers, Williams (13), Ege Abogidi (11) and TJ Bamba (11) all chipped in 11 or more points.
• Three of Washington State's nine field goal makes in the final stanza came in the first 2:09. From there, NM State's defense held the Cougars to a shooting clip of just 28.6-percent (6-of-21) the rest of the way.
• Wednesday marked the second time in 2021-22 in which Washington State lost a game when leading by 18 or more points. The Cougars held a 19-point advantage on Eastern Washington back on Saturday, Nov. 27, and wound up dropped a 76-71 decision to the Eagles.
• NM State is now 6-6 (.500) against Power Five opposition under head coach Chris Jans. Wednesday night's victory represented the Aggies' first true road win over a Power Five foe in Jans' tenure in Las Cruces. The last time NM State defeated a Power Five team on the road came on Dec. 17, 2016, when the Aggies scored an 81-70 triumph at Pac-12 foe Arizona State.
• NM State is now 3-1 (.750) all-time against Washington State. All three of those wins against the Cougars belong to Jans.
• The Aggies extended their streak of consecutive road victories to six with Wednesday night's win. Those six-straight true road victories represent the second-longest active streak in the nation behind Gonzaga (seven consecutive true road wins).

COMING UP NEXT
• To close out the non-conference portion of their schedule, the Aggies return to the Pan American Center for two games in the span of three games. NM State welcomes in-state foe Northern New Mexico to Las Cruces for a Saturday afternoon showdown at 4:00 p.m. as the Aggies seek to push their winning streak to five games.