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Las Cruz, N.M. (KTSM) – New Mexico men’s basketball lost 70-61 to California Baptiste at the Pan American Center on Saturday.
New Mexico is 0-4 in WAC play this season. This is his first 0-4 conference play start since the 2004-05 season. NMSU was a member of the Sun Belt Council at that time.
“We act like we’re a 14-2 team, not a 7-9 team,” NM State head coach Greg Heyer said after the game. “This is new territory for me as a coach at every level, everywhere, head coach, assistant coach.”
“We’re all pretty frustrated because it’s a well-known program and we’re here to win,” said NM State Guard Deshawndre Washington. We’re not underdogs because we know we’ve lost a lot of members, we’re just trying to figure things out, we’re trying to establish roles and we’ll see where it goes from here I am.”
Deshawndre Washington led the Aggies with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor. It was his season-high and his 10th scoring double figure of the season. Issa Muhammad was the only other Aggie of his to finish the night in double figures. Muhammad scored his 10 points on 4/10 shooting in 29 minutes of play.
New Mexico shot 41.7% from the field. The three balls didn’t drop as much as they would have liked as they went 5/15 (33.3%) from deep as a team. The Aggies reached the free-throw line 20 times and were knocked down 16 times. CBU out rebounded NMSU 34-25 on the night. The Lancers turned those rebounds into his 23-second chances for his points. Second in NMSU he had only three chance points.
Riley Battin led the Lancers with 18 points on 9-for-6 shooting. Battin made the trio of three. Taran Armstrong scored his 9 points on his 3-of-11 shooting from the field. All his make-ups were three-point shots. CBU as a team hit 12 3-pointers in 37 attempts. It’s his fourth time in the past five contests that NMSU has let an opponent hit his 10th or more 3-point shot.
California-Baptiste jumped out to an 11-2 lead after Tre Armstrong made a 3 at the 16:15 mark of the first half. The Lancers have a huge first half lead of 11 points, 20-9, with him at the 8:27 mark of the first frame of play.
New Mexico State fought back with an 11-2 run to make it a 22-20 two-point game with 1:26 remaining in the first half. The Lancers came back with a quick 5-0 run going into halftime with a 27-20 lead.
In the second half, the Lancers returned to 10 with a 3-pointer from Taran Armstrong. NMSU is 3 points behind at 13:10 in the second half. The California Baptist answers every time and extends its lead. NMSU pulled within 1, 46-45, after Issa Muhammad laid up with 8:45.
CBU once again maintained and extended their lead. The Lancers froze the contest by building a 16-point lead after a three-pointer from Riley Battin with 2:52 left in the game. CBU won NMSU 70-61 at the Pan American Center.
New Mexico State (7-9, 0-4 WAC) looks to bounce back from loss when they face Seattle University (12-4, 3-0 WAC) at the Red Hawk Center on Thursday, Jan. 12 .
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