So much for that winless road record. Just as they did last season, the Aggie men's basketball team went on the road to open WAC play and notched a victory ending their winless streak on the road in the non-conference by defeating Fresno State 79-66. The Aggies are now 4-0 in conference openers in the WAC. As impressive as the Aggies' victory was (and it was pretty impressive), it was not the most impressive win of the night in the WAC. That distinction goes to Idaho, who went into Reno and absolutely stunned Nevada 78-73. We'll have more on that in a bit.
Last night's game was about as entertaining a blowout victory as you could possibly have. The Aggies fell behind early 4-3 as it was a sloppy opening four minutes by both teams. The Aggies trailed 6-3 after Fresno State's Dwight O'Neil hit a pair of free throws coming out of the first media timeout but then the Aggies found their shot and they never looked back. The Aggies went on an 14-0 run over the next six and a half minutes to grab a 17-6 lead. The Aggies led by as many as 19 points in the first half before settling for an 18 point halftime lead.
Coming out of the second half, Fresno State went on a huge run as the Aggies started to play sloppy defense, fouling on shots under the basket. Fresno State cut the lead to seven points at 42-35 with 16:52 remaining in the game. However, that was as close as they would get the rest of the game. Wendell McKines would answer with a bucket to put the Aggies back up by nine and sparked a 13-0 run over the next four minutes that was bookended by another Wendell McKines bucket to put the Aggies up by 20 with 12:51 remaining. Lead safe right? Not so much. Just as quickly as the Aggies had built a 20 point lead Fresno State cut that lead back down to 12 with 11:06 remaining with an 8-0 run of their own. Game back on right? Not so much. The Aggies would answer with a 9-0 run to go back up by 21 points. Lead once again safe right? Again, not so much. The Bulldogs would answer with an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 10 with just 5:32 remaining in the game. Then what happened? You guessed it, an 11-0 run by the Aggies to go back up by 21 with just 2:17 remaining in the game. Fresno State would answer right back with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 11 with 13 seconds left but it was too little too late as Jahmar Young made a layup with 7 seconds left to give the Aggies their final margin of victory at 13 points.
Wendell McKines was a beast finishing with 18 points on 8-12 shooting. He grabbed 12 rebounds dished out an amazing six assists and committed just one turnover but made up for it with two steals. Jahmar Young, who was held 10 points below his season average in the last game against UNM, erased any memory of that game with a 25 point outburst. Young was 8-16 from the field, grabbed four rebounds and had five assists and one steal to counterbalance one turnover. Gordo Castillo had perhaps one of his best nights as an Aggies hitting on four of five shots to finish with 10 points. He also grabbed two rebounds.
Fresno State's freshman sensation Paul George was 7-14 for 15 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal and two turnovers. Despite a solid stat line he was largely neutralized by the Aggies.
Fresno State's downfall was their inability to hit the three. They were 7-30 from behind the arc on the night while the Aggies were 7-14 from behind the three point line. We're very pleased with the way the Aggies did not get caught up in a three point shooting contest with the Bulldogs. Fresno State attempted 14 threes in the first half, hitting just one, while the Aggies were much more efficient taking just six three pointers and hitting three of them.
The Aggies out rebounded the Bulldogs 44-40. Neither team shot well from the free throw stripe as the Aggies were 10-20 (50%) and the Bulldogs were 11-19 (57.9%).
This was a huge victory for the Aggies as it quickly erased any doubts that this team could go on the road and win in conference play. Up next they'll face San Jose State on Monday night in San Jose.
As far as the rest of the league, if last night was any indication it's going to be a wild and crazy conference season again. All four road teams were victorious last night. As we mentioned to open, Idaho stunned Nevada in Reno, Boise State defeated Hawai'i, Louisiana Tech beat San Jose State and of course the Aggies defeated Fresno State. Utah State will open up conference play when they host Idaho on Monday night. That game will feature a mentor/mentee matchup between Utah State's Stew Morrill and Idaho's first year head coach Don Verlin. Verlin was an assistant for Morrill for the 15 seasons, including the last 11 at Utah State. An interesting note, we chronicled the road struggles of the league's bottom three teams (record wise) heading into conference play, NMSU, Idaho and La. Tech were a combined 3-17 on the road in the non-conference, those three teams doubled that win total to six with their wins last night.
The Aggie women return to action this afternoon as they take on the Kansas Jayhawks. The Aggies are the second Aggie team to venture into Phog Allen Fieldhouse this season as the men did so at the beginning of the season.
The Aggies are currently on a five game losing skid and like the men are looking for their first road victory. The Phog will be a tough place to try to pick up that victory as Kansas is 6-0 at home and 9-2 overall.
The Aggies have struggled offensively during this losing streak averaging 58 points while giving up 73.6 during that stretch. The Aggies have also failed to hit better than 40% of their shots in each of those losses. The Aggies are shooting .356% from the field in those five losses and the Aggies' offensive catalyst Madison Spence has scored just 60 points in those five games, 39 of those points coming in two of the losses (UNM and Long Beach State). In the Aggies' last game against Illinois-Chicago in the tournament in San Diego, Spence hit no field goals and scored all six points from the free throw line, in the previous game of that tournament the Aggies attemted just four free throws. For the Aggies to be successful Madison Spence must score, as must Danisha Corbett and Tyshae Walton.
Kansas has three players averaging double-figures in scoring. They're led by guard/forward Danielle McCray who is averaging 19.4 points per game. Sade Morris is averaging 12.7 points per game and 6' 5" center Krysten Boogaard, who was a 2007-2008 All Big-12 Rookie team member, is averaging 10.9 points. The Jayhawks are hitting .474% of their shots and average 74.1 points per game while holding opponents to .335% shooting and just 55.5 points per game.
Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. MT and the game can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces. Streaming audio will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required). We will post relevant game links before tip-off.
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