NM State men earn share of WAC title and No. 1 seed at conference tournament

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Home games, fans and a certain trophy were noticeably absent from NM State's corner last season.

Fast-forward one year, and all three were present and accounted for on the final night of the 2021-22 regular season.

Johnny McCants brought his hometown to its feet inside the Pan American Center one final time with an 11-point, 13-rebound double-double, Teddy Allen added a game-high 20 points as he tried to push his name to the forefront in the WAC Player of the Year race and NM State did what it set out to do by securing the 2022 WAC regular-season title with a 62-46 victory over Utah Valley Saturday night.

McCants was one of four NM State seniors - a group which also included Yuat Alok, Clayton Henry and Donnie Tillman - who took part in their last engagement inside the Pan American Center. That foursome pulled out all the stops to help NM State win its fourth WAC regular-season title in the last five years, shutting down both the Wolverines and their star forward Fardaws Aimaq.

FIRST HALF
• Teddy Allen had a hand in all 12 of the Aggies' first points of the night. The Phoenix, Ariz., product either scored or assisted on NM State's first five field goal makes.
• The first of his assists came on Will McNair Jr.,'s one-handed slam to open the game before Allen canned the first of his four trifectas following a shot clock violation on Utah Valley's first offensive possession.
• Hoping to quiet the crowd, Utah Valley answered NM State's 5-0 run to open the game with an 8-0 surge culminating with Tim Fuller's layup with 17:13 left in the half.
• Following that layup, NM State scored the next five points and never trailed again. Allen found Clayton Henry for a three-pointer to pull the score even at 8-8 before Teddy Buckets picked off a pass and took it the other was for an emphatic one-handed slam to put the Aggies back on top, 10-8, with 14:23 on the clock.
• Justin Harmon knotted things at 12 with a layup, but Mario McKinney Jr., broke that tie by splashing a corner three-pointer off of a fine feed from Johnny McCants at the 10:34 mark.
• NM State's lead didn't grow to more than three points until the final four minutes of the game. Fardaws Aimaq, the nation's leader in double-doubles and a favorite for WAC Player of the Year, pulled his team within one, 19-18, by canning a jumper with 4:44 to go before Yuat Alok entered the fray.
• Playing in his final game inside the Pan American Center, the graduate forward from Aukland, New Zealand, netted all seven of his points in the final 3:39 of the half and led a 9-4 Aggie run to close the half. Alok either scored or assisted on all four of NM State's baskets to end the half.
• NM State shot 42.9-percent from the field while holding Utah Valley to a shooting clip of 32.1-percent.

SECOND HALF
• A personal 5-0 run courtesy of Allen started the deciding frame and also signaled how things were going to go for the Aggies the rest of the night. NM State's top point-producer may have started the hosts' game-changing run, but it was a host of his teammates who helped finish it.
• Jabari Rice showed off his offensive abilities by scoring six consecutive points before McCants capped off his team's 20-4 run through the first 8:17 of the frame with a long ball off of an assist from Will McNair Jr. That three-pointer pushed NM State's lead to 48-26 with 11:43 left.
• Trying anything they could to slow down NM State, the Wolverines dropped into a zone for the rest of the game in an attempt to cull the Aggies' high-powered offense. Though it did limit the damage NM State wrought, as the Aggies netted just 14 points through the last 11:42, the hosts' 22-point edge proved to be too much to overcome.
• Le'Tre Darthard tried his hand at willing the Wolverines back into the game, lacing a trio of three-pointers to power a 13-2 run which cut the Aggies' lead to 11, 50-39, with 7:44 left. Utah Valley was able to hit just a single field goal through the final 6:47 as NM State's defense clamped down considerably to close things out.
• McCants provided the exclamation point in the win, hammering home a two-handed jam off of an inbounds pass from Nate Pryor with 1:55 left. That jam accounted for the final score.

KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Allen hit the 20-point mark for the 15th time this season by pumping in a game-high 20 points on a 7-of-20 night from the field. One of the frontrunners for the WAC Player of the Year, Allen added six rebounds, five assists and a trio of steals in 39 minutes of action.
• McCants achieved double-double numbers for the second-straight game in his final game inside the Pan American Center. Las Cruces' favorite son finished with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, out-dueling Aimaq who totaled just eight points and nine boards in the Wolverines' second-straight loss.
• In addition to his double-double, McCants added four assists, three blocked shots and a steal. With the win, McCants added to his program-best career win total (119) and became the first NM State player in program history to win four regular-season championships.
• Darthard concluded his night with a team-high 13 points for Utah Valley. He was the only Wolverine to record double-digits in the scoring column. Aimaq and Tim Fuller finished with eight points apiece for Utah Valley which put up shooting splits of .347/.267/.800 in the setback.
• NM State secured number-one seed for the 2022 WAC Tournament with the win despite finishing in a three-way tie for first place atop the league standings. Though they shared the WAC's regular-season crown with Seattle U and SFA, NM State secured the league tournament's top spot by way of a 3-1 record against the Redhawks and Lumberjacks.
• The 46 points NM State gave up were the fewest the Aggies have surrendered in a WAC regular-season game since Feb. 29, 2020. That night, NM State allowed CSU Bakersfield to amass just 46 points on a 62-46 win.
• For NM State, it has now won four regular-season titles in the five seasons that Chris Jans has served as the head coach of the program.
• Alok, Henry, McCants and Donnie Tillman each played their final regular-season games inside the Pan American Center. That quartet was honored for their contributions to NM State basketball with a postgame ceremony before the team cut down the nets to celebrate the program's 21st conference title.

COMING UP NEXT
• With the top spot in the 2022 WAC Tournament in hand, NM State's is two wins away from its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019. The Aggies will head to Las Vegas, Nev., next week where they'll try to punch their ticket to the Big Dance beginning with a semifinal matchup Friday night at 7:00 p.m. inside Orleans Arena.