“Our kids played hard, they did a good job, all of them, it was a total team effort,” Aggie head coach Mark Trakh said. “I’m proud of the whole team, we’re playing well right now but we got to keep it up.”
NM State shot exactly the same in both halves (16-36) to finish shooting 44.4 percent from the field. The Aggies were also solid from the free-throw line, sinking 9-of-12 freebies, and also won the rebounding battle 41-36.
But once again the NM State win was mainly a product of the Aggies’ stifling pressure defense. NDSU only shot 39.6 percent from the field (21-53) and that number would have been even lower if not for some late easy looks for the Bison after the game was in hand.
The Aggies forced 25 NDSU turnovers, the third-straight game and fifth time this season NM State has forced at least 25 turnovers. The Aggies only committed 14 turnovers on the day.
NM State had four players finish in double-figure scoring, led by sophomore guard Moriah Mack who finished with a career-high 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Junior Sasha Weber sank 15 points to surpass the 800-point mark in her Aggie career. The reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week now sits at 802 points and is only 198 points from becoming only the 20th NM State player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
Point guard Shanice Davis added 11 points, five assists and five steals while forward Brianna Freeman added another 10 points.
After NDSU marked the first point of the game, the Aggies scored the next 13 with Mack sinking the last seven points of the run. NM State led 13-1 three minutes into the game.
The Aggies would keep the lead at 12 heading into the under-12 media timeout. A 3-pointer by junior Abby Scott and a bucket by sophomore Kassandra Harris would increase the NM State lead to15 points, 33-18, with 7:40 left in the half.
The Bison would get as close as 11 points in the latter portion of the half, but the Aggies marked five of the final six points of the half, including the half’s final field goal, Mack’s 10th and 11th points, to head into the locker room with a 16-point lead at 41-25.
A Weber bucket and a Mack 3-pointer quickly extended the NM State lead to over 20, 46-25, a minute into the second half.
With a 52-35 lead and 14 minutes left in the contest, the Aggies embarked on a 10-0 run over the next three-plus minutes to take an unsurmountable 27-point lead with 10:49 left. Weber marked eight of the 10 points after beginning the run by sinking a shot from beyond the arc and notching an old-fashioned 3-point play, and ending the run with another bucket.
NDSU would make one final run after scoring eight-straight points with about five minutes left to cut the NM State lead to under 20, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Aggies picked up their second victory of 20 or more points in the last three games.
NM State has little time to celebrate as it will put its three-game winning streak on the line on Tuesday when it concludes it six-game homestand with a matchup versus Cal Poly. The Mustangs also played on Sunday, losing a heavily contested game at home to St. Mary’s in overtime, 65-64, to fall to .500 on the season at 4-4.
Tuesday’s game has a 7 p.m. (MT) start time inside the Pan American Center and will air live over Las Cruces radio on AM 570 and can also be accessed over a live Internet stream for a fee at www.nmstatesports.com.
.@NMStateAggies Radio Network postgame INT w/ WBB HC Mark Trakh after a 79-59 W today v @NDSUathletics. Listen: http://t.co/pXVMsljQZO.
— Adam Young (@youngpbp) December 15, 2014