New Mexico State Men’s basketball’s Conference USA opponent Delaware outlasted the Aggies 73-64 Wednesday night in the Pan American Center.
The visiting Blue Hens kept a comfortable lead throughout the contest despite the Aggies late push. Delaware led by as many as 15 points whereas the Aggies failed to take the lead until briefly in the second half.
Anthony Wrzeszcz posted a career-high 20 points shooting 7/13 from the field and 6-12 from three. The senior guard was an integral piece of the team’s late surge alongside 14 points from Jayland Randall and 12 from Julius Mims.
“Obviously we didn’t get off to a good start,” head coach Jason Hooten said of the game, which saw the Aggies down 23-10 in the first half. “It boiled down to the same thing that every game that we’ve lost in the last five or six minutes, we just didn’t get a stop.”
Notably, Senior Guard Jemel Jones was left out of the starting lineup for just the second time this season. Jones leads the team with 16 points per game but finished the night with a season-low four points in 11 minutes played.
Regarding Jones being absent from the starting five, Hooten said, “We changed the lineup again tonight, tried to push some more buttons. I think for the most part we tried to play a little bit of a defensive lineup and in the end, it didn’t work as well.
Both teams turned the ball over 10 times,however, the Blue Hens were able to capitalize more off turnovers and outscored the Aggies in transition and in the paint.
With the loss, the Aggies fall to ninth in Conference USA and 10-10 on the season.
The Aggies’ next contest will be on the road against Conference USA opponent Kennesaw State (13-8) Saturday Jan. 31 at 3 p.m. MST.
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