LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The New Mexico State men’s basketball team is coming off yet another set of disappointing performances, falling to Delaware 73-64 at the Pan American Center Jan. 28 and losing to Kennesaw State 76-53 on the road Jan. 31. With the losses, the Aggies are now below .500 for the first time this season with a record of 10-11 (3-8 Conference USA).
NMSU returns to action tonight at 5:30 p.m. MT against Louisiana Tech at Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana. The Bulldogs currently sit at 12-9 (5-5 CUSA). What stands out is their stellar play at home, where they are 4-1 in conference play.
Despite this and the Aggies road struggles, head coach Jason Hooten said wins over teams like New Mexico, UC Irvine, and Sam Houston give him confidence moving forward.
“We (the coaching staff) told them (the players) to go watch the New Mexico game and the Sam Houston game and write down four things from each game that they see that they don’t see now,” Hooten said. “I’ve already gotten one of them and the answers there are absolutely amazing because it’s really interesting that one of the guys and all the answers he wrote are the same exact answers that I would have written. That tells you there that you got some guys on your team that understand and they see what needs to be done.”
Post play is something Hooten believes needs to improve to get back on track and thinks centers Augustine Ekwe and Cyr Malonga performed well in the blowout loss to KSU.
“Augustine is still young and he makes a lot of mistakes, but that’s part of growing and being a freshman. I did think he had some really positive minutes there late in the game,” Hooten said. “Cyr is an older guy. He knows what he needs to do. It’s just a matter of whether or not he can make some of those changes. I did think he gave us a little bit of some positive in there. He got a couple rebounds and some putbacks and some things that he had done early in the year.”
Jemel Jones is the Aggies’ leading scorer, averaging 15.8 points per game. However, he is coming off two rough outings that saw him score just 17 combined points. His getting back on track will be a priority for NMSU.
The inconsistencies do not end there though, as Elijah Elliott finished with only seven total points in the two losses after a dominant 26-point outing in the 81-78 loss to Florida International University.
There is some consistency though, as Julius Mims finished with a near double-double of 13 points and nine rebounds against Delaware. He came back the very next game against KSU and secured a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Jones, Elliott and Mims are the Aggies’ leading scorers and will need to have productive performances to defy the odds against LA Tech.
According to ESPN Analytics, the Bulldogs are 1.5-point favorites to defeat the Aggies.
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