Ags blown out: Utah State loses first WAC game in rout against NewMags

For the first 10 minutes Saturday night in Las Cruces, N.M., the Utah State men’s basketball team looked as though they really were the No. 1 team in the Western Athletic Conference.

After that, however, it was a downhill disaster.

Down by nine points with 9:48 left in the first half, the New Mexico State Aggies went on a 14-2 run that spanned four minutes and eventually ended up as a 100-70 thumping of Utah State.

It was the first Western Athletic Conference loss for Utah State (15-6, 5-1 in WAC), who was without four players-senior forward Stephen DuCharme, junior guard Desmond Stephen and redshirt freshmen Pooh Williams and Jaxon Myaer-due to a suspension.

“We got into a little of fools gold early,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said in a radio interview. “We got sped up and they got the speed of the game the way they wanted it. They got rolling and confident. (NMSU is) extremely athletic and dominated the game in every way imaginable. We could not stop them. We couldn’t match up with them on the boards. Their talent level is, in some respects, above this league.”

NMSU All-WAC forward Justin Hawkins led all scorers with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

Hawkins, who only had seven points on 3-of-12 shooting in his team’s loss to USU in Logan Jan. 12, was key in helping NMSU take and keep the lead in the first half Saturday. He had 12 of the hosts’ 14 points in the aforementioned first-half run.

Not only that, but Hawkins was one of five NMSU players in double figures.

That group included guard Jonathan Gibson, who added 22 points, forward Herb Pope’s 15, guard Fred Peete’s 11, and center Hatila Passos’ 10.

Pope and Passos did not play in the Jan. 12 contest in the Spectrum. Their presence on the court was felt as the hosts out-rebounded the Aggies, 38-25. In Logan, Utah State won the battle on the boards, 41-40.

“With the addition of Pope and Pathos, they are a talented group,” Morrill said. “We couldn’t guard them.”

NMSU opened the second half on a 15-3 run, quickly extending their lead to 22. Utah State never found a rhythm as it shot 33.3 percent in the final half after shooting nearly 60 percent in the first half.

USU true freshman Tyler Newbold had a team-high 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Senior guard Jaycee Carroll added 17 points, Kris Clark had 11, and Gary Wilkinson ended with 10.

In the absence of DuCharme, Morrill inserted freshman Matt Formisano, who took advantage of his chance by collecting eight points while shooting 50 percent from the field.

“I was just trying to do my best and do what I can for the team,” Formisano said. “It would have been a lot better if we would have won.”

Up next for Utah State, a Feb. 2 match-up in the Spectrum against the Nevada Wolf Pack-a team that beat NMSU in Las Cruces by 12 on Thursday.

“They are just as talented (as NMSU), if not more,” Morrill said. “Boise (State), after they lost (to NMSU) said Nevada is out there with three pros. The talent in this league is awfully high on some of these teams.”

-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu