It was going to be an uphill battle. The Aggie men’s basketball team knew that going in. Despite an unfriendly whistle and several scoring dryspells, Utah State nearly knocked off first-place New Mexico Sunday afternoon at The Pit in Albuquerque in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,411.
No matter how close it was, it still goes down as an L for the Aggies. The Lobos hit two big 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the game and increased their winning streak to eight with a 82-79 Mountain West Conference victory. “Give New Mexico credit,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said Sunday after the game.
“It’s a really, really good win for them. We can’t let one loss turn into two. There are five games left and we have to have a sense of urgency and finish the regular season strong.
” It was the the second loss for the Aggies (22-4, 12-3 MW) in the last four games — both to the Lobos (22-4, 14-1). Sunday’s game came right down to the final second. USU had rallied from an eight-point deficit to tie the game at 76-76 with 1:25 minutes to play.
Guard Ian Martinez had made two 3-pointers, and guard Mason Falslev also drilled a shot from long range as the Aggies used a 10-2 run to knot-up the contest. Then Lobo guard Tru Washington made the first of two free throws to give New Mexico a 77-76 lead with 56 seconds left and upped the lead to four on a 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining. Falslev hit a 3-pointer to get USU within a point with four seconds to go.
Lobo guard .
