Aggies lose on the road to New Mexico

Utah State women’s basketball fell below .500, 11-12, after a 73-70 loss on the road to New Mexico.

The Aggies, now 6-6 in Mountain West play, led 67-65 with just over a minute left in the game.

Three-straight USU turnovers allowed the Lobos to come back and take a 70-67 lead with 23 seconds to play. Sophomore guard Funda Nakkasoglu hit two free throws with 21 seconds to play and cut the lead to one.

Utah State fouled, UNM’s Bryce Owens hit both free throws and on the ensuing USU possession Julianne Anchling took a contested 3-point shot that was blocked. New Mexico came up with the loose ball and hit one more free throw. Utah State’s 3-point attempt didn’t go in.

Deja Mason came up with a rebound and hit a free throw but there wasn’t enough time for a USU comeback.

Nakkasoglu had 28 points and became the youngest player in Utah State history to reach 1,000 points. Cherise Beynon was the leading scorer for UNM with 24. Khadijah Shumpert was close behind with 17 points; she also grabbed seven rebounds.

Utah State turned the ball over 23 times which led to 34 points off turnovers by New Mexico. The Lobos also shared the ball well, they had 18 assists on 23 made baskets. The Aggies had only eight assists on 24 baskets.

USU freshman guard Katie Toole was the second leading scorer on the team. She had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting and also grabbed five rebounds. Another freshman, Rachel Brewster, led the Aggies in rebounding with 10. Offensively, Brewster had a rough night going 0 for 9 from the field but scored two points on free throws.

On the boards, Utah State won the battle, outrebounding the Lobos 43-38.

The Aggies have their second bye in conference play on Saturday. The next game is on Wednesday at Colorado State, with tipoff at 7 p.m.

— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com

Twitter: @kalen_taylor