NMSU can’t survive offensive barrage from Weston, Middle Tennessee in 5th CUSA home loss

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New Mexico State showed improvement on offense after halftime.

One problem though — so did Middle Tennessee.

Thursday’s contest at the Pan American Center was a tale of two halves. The first half was a defensive one, with both teams shooting below 34% from the field. The Aggies failed to make a 3-pointer on four tries, while the Blue Raiders only made one of 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

The Blue Raiders (19-9, 10-5 Conference USA) had better offensive fortunes than the Aggies (15-13, 8-7) in the second half, shooting a staggering 65.2% after halftime with 44 points. NM State had 38 points on 41.7% shooting in the second half, but its defense just couldn’t keep up in a 71-66 defeat.

MTSU found a way past its 3-point shooting struggles, going 6-for-12 from that range in the second half.

“I don’t think we gave the effort on defense that we needed to,” said senior guard Christian Cook, who scored a team-high 24 points. “I think we played really good last week on the road, and I think we kind of let that get to us, and we came out flat, and then that led to us not playing as good as we needed to.”

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MTSU’s Camryn Weston was the main beneficiary, scoring 19 points in the second half to end with 30. He drained the Blue Raiders’ final four 3-pointers of the game, including two daggers with under 3:40 to play.

Aggies coach Jason Hooten believes Weston’s 3-pointers had partly to do with MTSU’s Essam Mostafa’s commanding attention inside (he scored 13 points in the second half), but also credited his talent.

“Their best player doesn’t even start,” Hooten said. “You just gotta have something over there that’s gonna get it done, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

The loss snaps NM State’s three-game winning streak as it falls to 3-5 at home. Hooten expressed his disappointment at the Aggies’ home crowd and student section on…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nmsu-cant-survive-offensive-barrage-122105614.html

Author : Las Cruces Sun-News

Publish date : 2025-02-28 12:21:00

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