Men's Basketball Suffers 86-65 Loss at New Mexico State

Wednesday, November 19

Las Cruces, N.M.

7:00 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

1-2

New Mexico State

1-2

UNCO

New Mexico State

Photo by: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY

11/19/2014 10:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

A hot shooting Aggies team was too much for the Bears to handle on Wednesday night.

By: UNCBears.com

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The Northern Colorado men's basketball team (1-2, 0-0 Big Sky) was unable to play spoiler at the New Mexico State (1-2, 0-0 WAC) home opener on Wednesday night. The three-peat WAC champions upended the Bears, 86-65.

The Aggies came out hot on their home court scoring the first seven points of the game in the first two minutes of play. A single senior forward, Tim Huskisson free throw stopped the run and sparked a five point scamper for the Bears, capped off by a senior forward, Dominique Lee offensive board-and-bucket to bring UNC back within two points.

"I was proud of the way be battled back after getting down early," said head coach B.J. Hill. "The way we fought after their run showed some grit and some character, but I didn't see much after that, so we were kind of a one hit wonder."

A no-look pass from sophomore guard, Jordan Wilson to a wide open Lee underneath the basket tied the game at, 9-9 with 15:23 remaining in the half. The Aggies were forced to call timeout to regroup.

Coming out of the timeout Wilson drove to the lane and was fouled giving him two chances at the charity stripe. A make and a miss gave The Bears their first lead of the game, 10-9.

Wilson wasn't done there. Seconds later with the shot clock winding down, the sophomore cleared the lane and drove the paint, splitting two defenders, kissing it off the glass for two, making it a 12-11 ballgame, in favor of the UNC. This would be the last lead of the game for Northern Colorado.

The Aggies offense would burst open another run, this time for ten points and suddenly jumped out to a double digit with 11:22 to play in the first half.

Over the next four minutes of action the Bears were held scoreless until another Lee basket down low stopped the scoring drought and brought UNC back within nine, 27-18 with 6:45 remaining on the clock.

Senior guard, Tevin Svihovec hit a fade-away 15-foot jumper to cut the deficit down to eight, but the Aggies built the lead back up to double-digits and wouldn't relinquish it for the remainder of the first half.

Northern Colorado trailed by 11, 41-30 heading into the locker room.

"I'm very disappointed in our toughness level right now and I'm very disappointed in our ability to battle," Hill added. "They were the aggressor all night. They were the hungrier team and looked like they wanted it more after coming off two tough road losses. I'm not sure why we failed maintain a physical presence tonight, but that is something we are going to figure out very quickly."

UNC was less than average from the floor in the first half shooting 38.0% (11-29) and failed to make a three-pointer going, 0-5. On the other end of the court, the Aggies fired 48.3% (14-29) from the floor and hit three three's (3-7) in the first 20 minutes of action.

Much like the first half, New Mexico State came out guns blazing to start the second half, scoring eight unanswered points to jump out in from of the Bears by nineteen.

Huskisson stopped the bleeding for UNC on a nice pick-and-roll bucket starting a quick, 6-0 for Bears offense ending on a Wilson layup to bring the deficit back down to 11, 49-38 with 16:50 left on the clock in the game.

It was all New Mexico State from there on out, extending the lead back to 18 points over the next four minutes.

A steal from Huskisson and a transition triple from sophomore guard, Cameron Michael brought the deficit back down to 15, but that is as close as the Bears would come to tying the game for the rest of the night.

The Aggies pushed their lead into the 20-point range over the remainder of the second half and took the contest, 86-65.

"Their pressure took us out of what we wanted to do," said Hill. "Bottom line is we can't continue to give up 55% percent shooting, I know a part of that was their rebounds, but from what I saw, it was a team effort in lack of toughness tonight."

Huskisson led the Bears on the night, dropping 16 points and adding five boards. Michael also got into double figures. The sophomore scored 13 points, but went just 1-7 from beyond the arch. Svihovec added 12 points and Lee posted UNC's first double-double of the season, scoring 10 points and bringing down 10 rebounds in the loss.

Overall, Northern Colorado finished the night 43.2% (27-62) from the floor, but shot just 20% (3-15) from three-point land.

The Aggies' Daniel Mullings led all scorers, producing 20 points and adding eight boards and six assists. New Mexico State ended the night 55.2% (32-58) from inside the arch and made an impressive 5 of 11 three-pointers.

The men's basketball team will look to shake off its road woes, heading back home to Bank of Colorado Arena to host Colorado Christian University next Monday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m.