Box Score (PDF) | Postgame Comments

The Aggie women's basketball team got a career-high 23 points and 17 rebounds from senior forward Kelsie Rozendaal and utilitzed a 23-4 run midway through the second half to erase a three point deficit and cruise to a 76-63 victory over UT-Arlington in the play-in round of the 2013 WAC Tournament.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The 2013 WAC Basketball Tournament gets underway today with four play-in games. The women will hit the hardwood first with New Mexico State playing in the second play-in game where they'll face Saturday's foe UT-Arlington. The Aggies jumped out to a big lead on the Mavericks down in Arlington but had to hold on as the Mavs rallied late before the Aggies held on for a 72-66 victory. New Mexico State split the season series with UTA with each team winning on the other's home court -- UTA 62-59 in Las Cuces and the Aggies the aforementioned 72-66 win in Arlington.

The two keys players for both teams are Stephanie Gilbreath for the Aggies who scored 40 points in two games against UTA and Laila Suleiman who scored 32 points in the two games against the Aggies. Obviously those two players will be the focus of the defensive efforts by both teams but today's game could come down to another player or to elevating their game. In the first meeting the Mavs had three other players in double figures in scoring while in the Aggies' win on Saturday it was Kelsie Rozendaal chipping in for 16 points along with two others in double figures.

Expect the three balls to fly for the Aggies against UTA as they shot a total of 58 three pointers against the Mavs in the two games hitting 13 (22.4 percent).

This game will mark the fourth time since joining the WAC that the Aggies' first opponent in the WAC tournament is the same is their regular season finale opponent. The Aggies faced Hawai'i, Louisiana Tech and Fresno State in those three previous meeting coming away with a 1-2 record. In the games against LA Tech and Fresno State the Aggies lost both the regular season finale as well as the tournament matchup, however, they did win the regular season finale against Hawai'i and also the tournament game just days later which bodes well for this afternoon's contest against UTA.

Today's game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. (MDT) tip-off and can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces as well as streaming online via Aggie Access (subscription required).

The Aggie baseball team heads to Norman, Okla. today to take on the 17th ranked Sooners. The Aggies are riding a five-game winning streak after coming off a weekend four-game sweep of La Salle in which the Aggie offense got back on track scoring a total of 41 runs.

The Sooners come into the midweek series having lost four of their previous six games including a loss to fellow WAC member UT-Arlington.

Both today and tomorrow's games are scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. (MDT) first pitch and can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces as well as streaming online via Aggie Access (subscription required).

(This is the thirty-fourth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

The final game of the regular season in Las Cruces brought the Mavericks of the University of Texas at Arlington to visit. This was the thirteenth meeting between New Mexico State and UTA in men’s basketball and the second as members of the WAC. Since UTA is moving to the Sun Belt next year, it is unlikely that these teams will meet again anytime soon. NMSU won the first ten meetings between the schools; UTA has won the previous two, including a 68-47 victory to start the conference season on December 29. That was among the worst efforts given by the Aggies this year, and among the best by UTA.

Entering the evening, New Mexico State (20-10, 13-4 WAC) was in third place in the conference and destined to stay there, trailing Denver by two games and leading UTA (17-11, 11-6 WAC) by two with one game to be played. UTA’s lead on Utah State was one game, so if the Mavericks were to lose and USU to win, the teams would be tied for fourth. UTA held the tiebreaker for seeding, so would be the fourth seed for the conference tournament no matter today’s outcome; the only thing that seeding means is that UTA will wear the home uniforms in the four-five game between USU and UTA in Las Vegas.   Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

BOSTON, MA - New Mexico State men's basketball head coach Marvin Menzies is a 2013 finalist for the Ben Jobe Award from CollegeInsider.com, the organization announced Monday, March 11. The award is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I college basketball.

The 20 finalists include Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Mike Anderson (Arkansas), Kevin Baggett (Rider), Roman Banks (Southern), Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary's), Mike Davis (Texas Southern), Anthony Evans (Norfolk State), Anthony Grant (Alabama), James Green (Jacksonville State), Frank Haith (Missouri), Joe Jones (Boston University), Cuonzo Martin (Tennessee), Bashir Mason (Wagner), Ray McCallum (Detroit), Marvin Menzies (New Mexico State), Howard Moore (Illinois-Chicago), LeVelle Moton (North Carolina Central), Kevin Ollie (Connecticut), Shaka Smart (VCU), John Thompson III (Georgetown).  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State catcher Tanner Rust has been named the Western Athletic Conference Baseball Hitter of the Week, for the week of March 4-10.

Rust, a junior from Lakeside, Calif. (El Capitan HS), helped the Aggies to a 4-0 record last week with a four-game series sweep over LaSalle. Rust hit .600 (9-for-15) without a single strikeout over the four games. He also tallied two walks, four RBI, scored eight runs and was 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts.  Continue Reading This Post >>

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State women's basketball senior guard Stefanie Gilbreath was named Newcomer of the Year and received second team All-WAC accolades by the Western Athletic Conference, announced Monday. The 2012-13 All-WAC awards are based on a vote by all 10 of the league's head coaches.

The senior transfer from USC worked her way to Newcomer of the Year award by claiming the third best scoring average (17.4) in the conference. She finished the season by scoring in double figures in each of the Aggies 18 WAC games and 20-plus points in nine games this season.

In WAC games, the senior ranked third in the conference in scoring (19.4) and three-pointers per game (2.44), fifth in free throw percentage (83.3), ninth in blocks (0.94) and 12th in rebounding (7.3).  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State women's basketball guard Stefanie Gilbreath was named Player of the Week for the Western Athletic Conference for the week of March 4-10, the conference office announced Sunday. This is the first honor for the senior and third for the Aggies this season.

The Katy, Texas native led the Aggies to a pair of road wins, including its first-ever win in Ruston, La., over Louisiana Tech. She opened the week with 18 points and five rebounds, helping NM State to the 11-point win over the Lady Techsters. Gilbreath then came back for her fifth double-double of the year with 25 points and 10 rebounds in the 72-66 win over UT Arlington on Saturday, March 9. She had four assists and two steals on the Saturday win as well. Gilbreath has tallied 20 or more points in nine games this season and finished the regular season with double-digit scoring in each of the Aggies 18 WAC games.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State baseball team moves .500 on the year after coming from behind to win 12-11 over La Salle off a Parker Hipp walk-off single that scored junior Michael Medina in the 10th inning at Presley Askew Field, Sunday, March 10.

The Aggies (8-8), who swept La Salle, fell behind 9-2 after two innings of play before sophomore Trey Higginbothom jumped on the mound in the second inning to stop the bleeding. He worked 3.2 innings and allowed two runs, neither of them earned, while striking out four batters.

"You have to credit La Salle for coming out and giving us the type of game it did," head coach Rocky Ward said. "I am proud of my guys for staying in there and fighting through it for the win."  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State men's basketball senior forward Bandja Sy, sophomore guard Daniel Mullings and freshman center Sim Bhullar earned All-WAC honors, as voted on by the league's 10 head coach.

"I'm very happy with the selections that were made from our team," head coach Marvin Menzies said. "I feel like they were well deserved. I think whenever you have success as a team then the individual accolades always follow. It was only appropriate that having a very good regular season in conference that we were able to get three guys on the all-conference teams. I'm happy for the guys, and looking forward to focusing now on the WAC Tournament."  Continue Reading This Post >>