The New Mexico State men’s basketball team continues to struggle on the road after narrowly dropping their third consecutive road game against the Fresno State Bulldogs 81-76 and are now 0-3 away from the Pan American Center. Despite a solid effort from the starting five, the Aggies fell to a 3-3 record after the Bulldogs held onto an early lead in overtime.
The Aggies got off to a hot start in the first minutes of the game with an early 8-0 run while connecting on their first three shot attempts. Despite the early run, the Bulldogs defense forced the Aggies to miss their next five shot attempts to cut the Aggies’ lead to two.
Junior forward Robert Carpenter retaliated for the Aggies and scored five points before getting subbed out. After the Bulldogs cut the lead down to a deuce, Carpenter went back in, sunk another bucket and rejected an inside layup shot to keep the Bulldogs overall field goal percentage low.
After several minutes of solid defensive plays, personal fouls and free throws taken, the Bulldogs ended their field goal drought when Jalen Weaver found his way into the paint and hit a jump shot that cut the lead down to two points. The Aggies clapped back and made their first bucket after going on drought themselves before countless turnovers and missed field goals were forced.
A miscommunication by the Aggies allowed the Bulldogs to take their first lead after falling behind by eight points early in the first half.
Despite the Bulldogs gaining their first lead, the Aggies continued pushing the pace to keep the game tight, ending the first half down 32-28.
Entering the second half, the Aggies looked to regain the early momentum they had at the start of the game. The Aggies hit two early jumpers, cutting their deficit down to six before the Bulldogs nailed two buckets to grab an eight-point lead.
With the lead margin staying under double digits, the Bulldogs and the Aggies took turns trading shots to keep the competitiveness of the game active. The Aggies went from shooting 42% to 52%, while the Bulldogs improved to 59% from 33% on their shot attempts in the second half.
Despite an overall shooting improvement from the Aggies, their three-point field goal efficiency had an opposite turn around as their long-distance percentage plummeted from 55% to 10%, making it tough for the Aggies to gain any momentum with the long ball.
With their long-distance shots not going in, the Aggies relied on shots inside the arc and scoring off turnovers to keep their hopes of winning alive.
The Aggies managed to pull a 67-64 lead with under a minute left in the contest, but a three-pointer by FSU’s Isaiah Hill tied the game at 69 to force overtime after NMSU’s Femi Odukale was unable to knock down the game-winning shot.
With five extra minutes, both teams looked to end the game on a high note, but the Bulldogs lone overtime jumper and free throw shooting efficiency propelled them to an 81-76 victory over the Aggies.
After returning home to face the University of the Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 28, the Aggies will hit the road again to face I-25 rival, the University of New Mexico Lobos on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. Coverage will be streamed on the Mountain West Network and Zia Country 99.5-FM.
