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NM STATE MEN'S BASKETBALL

NM State takes aim at New Mexico Monday night in Albuquerque

Aggies hoping to stop three-game skid against longtime in-state rivals

Posted

Game Nine
NM State (6-2) at New Mexico (5-3)
Monday, Dec. 6 | 7:00 p.m. | The Pit | Albuquerque, N.M.
Watch | Listen | Live Stats | Tickets | NM State Game Notes | New Mexico Game Notes

THE OPENING TIP
• A three-game stretch against its two most bitter rivals concludes in The Duke City Monday night as NM State looks to put the brakes on a three-game skid against New Mexico when the teams tangle with one another inside The Pit at 7:00 p.m.
• Fans unable to make the trip to Albuquerque, N.M., can catch every second of the action on the Mountain West Network.
• Over the airwaves, legendary radio play-by-play man Jack Nixon will set up shop courtside to call the action.
• Nixon's play-by-play and analysis 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 Friday night's tilt.

FAST BREAK POINTS
• After missing two games due to COVID-19 protocols, NM State head coach Chris Jans returned to the bench last Friday night in the Aggies' win at UTEP.
• A much more efficient version of Teddy Allen has been present for the Aggies over their last three games. The redshirt junior guard is averaging 22.3 points while shooting 23-of-41 (.561) through that span. Allen has drilled 45-percent (9-of-20) of his three-point tries while going a perfect 12-of-12 from the foul line in that same time period.
• In each of his past two games, redshirt sophomore forward Will McNair Jr., has succeeded in resetting his career high in scoring. The Philadelphia, Pa., product is averaging 16.0 points on 15-of-22 (.682) shooting as he looks to continue his emergence as a legitimate post threat.
• The Aggies have won each of their last three true road games dating back to the 2020-21 season.
• In last Tuesday night's loss against New Mexico, the Aggies gave up 100 or more points to the opposition for the first time in the Chris Jans coaching era. Before Tuesday, the last time NM State let a foe hit the century mark came in 2017 when it claimed a 107-101 WAC win at UTRGV on Feb. 18. Since 2010, only three NM State opponents (Nevada, New Mexico and UTRGV) have amassed 100 or more points in a game.
• 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 90 rejections to his credit as a collegian which are the 10th-most all-time by any Aggie.
• Including Monday night's showdown in Albuquerque, NM State has played its last three games against its two biggest non-conference rivals - New Mexico and UTEP. That stretch of three-consecutive rivalry games marks the first time since 2010 that the Aggies have played the Miners and Lobos in three consecutive games. In the 2010-11 campaign, NM State played four-straight games against UTEP (two) and New Mexico (two), going 0-4 in that stretch.
• Just six days will have passed since the Aggies and Lobos last crossed paths when the two teams tip off Monday night in The Pit. That's the shortest period of time between games featuring those two teams since 2012 when the Aggies and Lobos met twice in four days (Dec. 15 and Dec. 19).

NM STATE vs. NEW MEXICO | SERIES HISTORY & TIDBITS
• NM State and New Mexico have met on the hardwood 224 times since the series began in 1904. That's the longest running series between New Mexico State and an opponent in program history. The 225 meetings between the Aggies and Lobos are also the most by NM State and an opponent in the history of the program.
• Only two events - World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic - have prevented the Aggies and Lobos from duking it out on an annual basis since 1923. The teams didn't play one another last season on the hardwood, marking the first time since 1943 that they didn't engage in basketball-related combat.
• NM State comes into Monday night's tilt on a three-game losing skid against New Mexico after the Lobos won both meetings in the 2019-20 season and the first meeting between the two teams this year. That snapped NM State's five-game winning streak against their in-state rivals.
• The Aggies' five-game winning streak which spanned from December of 2016 until November of 2019 was the program's third-longest winning streak against the Lobos. Prior to that run, that last time NM State won five or more games against New Mexico came from March 2, 1954-January 18, 1956, when the Aggies also won five in a row.
• The two longest winning streaks New Mexico State produced against its in-state rivals came in the early 20th century. From February 11, 1916-February 21, 1923, New Mexico State bested the Lobos 10 consecutive times. In a dominant run that spanned a pair of decades, the Aggies won 19-straight showdowns between the two programs from February 22, 1936-December 11, 1940.
• Now in his fifth season in charge in Las Cruces, head coach Chris Jans is one of only three bench bosses in the history of the program who have won each of their first four meetings with New Mexico. Jans joins John G. Griffith (1917-20) and Robert R. Brown (1922-26) in that category.
• Jans' record against New Mexico sits at 4-3 (.571) all-time.
• Since the start of the 2011-12 season, NM State has dropped just 14 games on its home court at the Pan Am Center. Seven of those setbacks, however, have come at the hands of New Mexico.

LAST TIME OUT vs. NEW MEXICO | New Mexico 101, at NM State 94
• A power outage of nearly 50 minutes inside the Pan American Center during the game's first media timeout didn't affect the offenses for either team, but in the end it was New Mexico who came away with a 101-94 win Tuesday night.
• In the Aggies third-straight loss to the Lobos, NM State saw their longtime in-state rivals amass over one-third of their points from the free throw line in a contest which featured a total of 77 attempts from that distance.
• Teddy Allen and Jabari Rice did all they could to keep the Aggies within striking distance all night. That pair of NM State backcourt players combined for 52 of the team's 94 points (55.3-percent) with Allen generating a season and game-high 31 points on an 8-of-16 effort from the field.
• Allen and Rice went a combined 21-of-23 from the free throw stripe and became the first Aggie duo to combine for 50 or more points against New Mexico since AJ Harris (31) and Terrell Brown (20) did so in a 98-94 NM State win in Albuquerque back on Nov. 17, 2018.
• Will McNair dropped in a career-high 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting while adding aeight rebounds. Allen's rebounding total of nine matched his career-high and represented the highest total by an Aggie Tuesday night.
• Jaelen House matched Allen with a 31-point performance to lead New Mexico. Jay Allen-Tovar came off the bench for the Lobos and turned in a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double.
• NM State head coach Chris Jans missed his second-straight game due to COVID-19 protocols. His record against New Mexico slipped to 4-3 after Tuesday's result.

LAST TIME OUT | NM State 72, at UTEP 69 | Dec. 3, 2021
• For the second time in his collegiate career - and for the first time against one of the Aggies' biggest rivals - Jabari Rice connected on a game-winning shot with less than two seconds remaining as he swirled in a game-winning three-pointer with 1.6 ticks to go, lifting NM State to a 72-69 win at UTEP Friday night.
• Rice's game-winner came after the Miners stormed back from a seven-point deficit with 4:19 remaining. UTEP tied the game by going on a 7-0 run over a span of 53 seconds.
• Electing to work in the paint rather than beyond the arc, the Aggies took just 10 tries from long distance. NM State's previous low in terms of three-point field goal attempts this season was 20 against UTEP back on Nov. 13.
• Down low, it was Will McNair Jr., who controlled things. The Philadelphia, Pa., product submitted a career-high 18 points on an impressive 9-of-12 shooting which helped NM State own a massive 52-28 (+24) points in the paint edge against the Miners.
• Those close-range shots allowed the Aggies to convert a season-best 56.6-percent (30-of-53) of their field goals. That's the best field goal percentage in a game by NM State since it shot 58-percent (29-of-50) in a WAC win at Tarleton back on Feb. 26, 2021.
• With the win, NM State swept the season series against UTEP and extended its winning streak to three in a row against its longtime Texas rivals.
• NM State head coach Chris Jans moved to 7-1 all-time against UTEP with the victory.
• NM State improved to 12-1 in its last 13 games against UTEP. The Aggies have emerged as the victors in 15 of their last 17 matchups with the Miners, too.

SCOUTING NEW MEXICO | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• A new coach in Richard Pitino and a new star in the making in Jamal Mashburn Jr., has hoop hopes high in the Duke City as the Lobos seek to cap off a second-straight season sweep of the Aggies in The Pit Monday night.
• Making his way down to the Land of Enchantment from Minnesota, Pitino has the Lobos off to a 5-3 start. They put an end to a two-game losing skid when they captured a 101-94 win over the Aggies last Tuesday inside the Pan American Center Tuesday night. The duo of Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr., led the way for the Lobos in that one.
• Son of famed Kentucky - and NBA - star Jamal Mashburn, Mashburn Jr., tops the Lobos charts in numerous statistical categories including his scoring clip of 20.4 points per game which ranks 240h in the nation.
• In the Lobos' backcourt, another second-generation hooper who's dad logged minute in an NBA uniform mans things. Jaelen House, son of 11-year NBA veteran and 2008 NBA champion Eddie House, ranks third in the Mountain West Conference in steals per game (2.00) and tops the team's charts in assists per game (4.6). House went off for 31 points in the Lobos' win at NM State last Tuesday night.
• Though House and Mashburn Jr., are the team's top two scorers, they are hardly the only two weapons the Lobos have. Javonté Johnson (9.7 ppg) and KJ Jenkins (8.8 ppg) are both shooting 48-percent or better from long range.
• A strong interior defensive team, New Mexico leads the Mountain West and ranks 44th in the nation with a blocked shots per game average of 5.0.
• New Mexico has won its last five home games dating back to the 2019-20 season.

THIS DATE IN NM STATE HISTORY
• NM State's first game on this date came in 1944 - a 54-44 win over the Fort Bliss 643 AAA squad.
• NM State and New Mexico are tangling with one another for the second time ever on Dec. 6. The first meeting between the two teams on this date came in 1971 when Lou Henson and the Aggies scored a 94-79 win over the Lobos at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, N.M.
• Aggie head coach Chris Jans is 0-1 all-time on this date as NM State's bench boss. In 2017, the Aggies found themselves on the wrong end of a 65-60 decision against WCC foe San Diego inside the Pan American Center.

COMING UP NEXT
• Once they wrap things up in Albuquerque Monday night, the Aggies will be at the midway point of a four-game road trip. Next up in that season-long stretch of road games is a trip to Los Angeles, Calif., where NM State will tangle with Loyola Marymount for the first time since 2008. Tip-off is set for 5:00 p.m. MT from Gersten Pavilion on Saturday, Dec. 11.

NM State Men's Basketball

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