The Aggie women (13-6, 6-0 WAC) set all doubt aside after going 3-0 on the road trip that concluded on Saturday afternoon with a heavyweight battle against second-place Texas-Pan American (11-10, 4-2 WAC), a battle NM State won 74-71, handing the Broncs only their second loss at home this season.
“I thought the kids played great,” Trakh said. “We did a good job but we got to tighten up, we got to rebound better, we got to be a little more focused coming down the stretch. But we were fortunate to win this game and that’s all that matters right now, big win for us.”
With the Aggies up by one and 10.5 seconds left on the clock, preseason All-WAC guard Sasha Weber sank two free throws to give NM State the 74-71 lead. After a timeout, UTPA had a couple of chances to send the game into overtime with shots from beyond the arc, but both fell off the mark.
Weber, who finished with 17 points and inches closer to the 1,000-point mark, had actually missed two free throws with 14 seconds left. But Aggie sophomore Tamera William came swooping in after the second miss and stole an offensive rebound, allowing Weber to redeem herself at the charity stripe. William finished with three boards, all on the offensive side.
Although Weber and William provided the late heroics for the Aggies, it was forward Brianna Freeman who led NM State to victory. The Aggie sophomore finished with her second-consecutive double-double and team-leading fourth of the season.
Freeman tied her career high in points, matching the 25 points she marked versus Bakersfield earlier this season. She also finished with a career-high 15 rebounds. She had game highs in both categories. The WAC leader in field-goal percentage finished 9-of-14 from the field for a .643 percentage. She also sank seven of her eight free throw attempts.
“That (William) offensive rebound sealed the game for us, Tamera did an awesome job,” Trakh said. “And Brianna, I just can’t say enough about her”
Fellow sophomore Moriah Mack had another solid outing for NM State, finishing with 13 points, five boards, four assists and two steals.
The six-game winning streak from two weeks ago now stands at nine games, the fifth-longest winning streak in program history and the longest since a record 15-straight wins in 1988.
After losing their first four road matchups, the Aggies have now also won six-consecutive games on the road, including a neutral site win versus Florida Atlantic. The program record for road wins is nine games.
NM State is 6-0 in conference play for the first time since 1990 when it played in the High Country Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners, as NM State was nicknamed back then, also began conference play 6-0 before losing their seventh HCAC game. With the win the Aggies have at least two games on the rest of the WAC field almost midway through the conference schedule.
“We’re 6-0 in the WAC, but I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, we still got a long way to go, we haven’t won anything yet, we haven’t won a championship, we have to take it game by game,” Trakh said. “The kids did a great job, these guys (UTPA) have been blowing people out in this gym all year, but we can get a lot better. We just beat a very athletic team that probably has the best or second-best talent in the conference next to Bakersfield and we were fortunate to beat them. We just got to keep improving, one game, one possession at a time, (we) don’t want to get ahead of ourselves too much here.”
Freeman immediately kicked things off by marking an old-fashion 3-point play 10 seconds into the game. After she added a couple of free throws the Aggie lead was at 9-4 with 17:12 to play in the half.
UTPA would close the gap to one at 9-8, but two more Freeman free throws a little later extended the lead to six at 20-14 with just over 12 minutes left in the opening frame.
The Broncs, however, came out of the under-12 media timeout and scored seven-consecutive points, and after a 3-pointer by senior UTPA point guard Tonisha Walker the Broncs had their first and only lead of the entire game at 21-20.
Yet, as NM State fans have grown accustomed to, the Aggies answered the opponent run with a run of their own. NM State did UTPA one better after running off eight-straight points to take a 28-21 lead with six and a half minutes left in the first half.
Another 7-0 Broncs’ run tied the game with under a minute left in the half, but Zaire Williams nailed a 3-pointer for the final points of the half to give the visitors a 35-32 lead at halftime.
The Aggies would slowly start extending the lead early in the second frame and after a William’ free throw the lead had grown to double digits for the first time at 50-40 with 14:48 left in the contest.
Mack kept the lead at 10 by marking NM State’s next five points as the teams traded buckets, but a 12-6 UTPA mini-run cut the Aggie lead to four midway through the half.
With a 68-62 lead and 6:18 left, NM State would be held scoreless for almost two and a half minutes as the Broncs cut the lead to one at 68-67 with under four minutes remaining.
Two Shanice Davis’ free throws and a Mack bucket again gave the Aggies breathing room, but the Broncs sank three-straight free throws to cut the lead to 72-71 in the final minute and set up the final moments of the game.
NM State now heads home to for a couple of WAC games inside the Pan American Center. The Aggies meet Chicago State on Thursday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. before facing Missouri-Kansas City on Saturday, Feb. 7, beginning at 2 p.m.