Looking to continue their quest of climbing up the Conference USA standings, the New Mexico State women’s basketball team battled the University of Texas at El Paso Miners for the 97th time and delivered a performance with six players scoring in double figures. The Aggies defeated the Miners 66-59 to earn the fifth-place spot in the conference standings with a 10-12 overall record.
Both teams tipped off the game by knocking down a quick shot to tie it at tie apiece while junior guard Jaila Harding nailed the Aggie’s first seven points. Solid defense, on both ends, then led to missed layups and jump shots for a short period of time before shot attempts started falling in.
After exchanging a three-pointer following the early struggles, the Aggies unleashed an 8-0 scoring run and extended their lead to double digits ending the first quarter up 19-9.
Despite giving up 10 points in the last five minutes of the first quarter, the Miners shook off the struggles and knocked down 60% of their shots in the second with Mahri Petree dropping nearly half of their points. The consistent play allowed them to cut the lead to single digits for a moment, but the Aggies effort on both ends of the floor negated the Miners hopes of tying or taking the lead, extending their lead by14 points at the end of the first half with the Aggies up 39-25.
Diving into the third quarter, the Aggies continued to overwhelm the Miners with second chance opportunities while senior forward Ene Adams’ and guard Molly Kaiser’s persistence led to stolen rebounds and extra opportunities for the Aggies to score despite shooting 38% in the quarter. Midway through the third, the Miners defense forced the Aggies into taking tough shots, while connecting on their attempts and preventing themselves from facing a huge deficit, ending the quarter down by 10.
The Miners attempted to make a comeback after the Aggies went on a scoring drought and cut the lead five points with four minutes left to play. But with shots from junior guards Jalia Harding, Adams and Kaiser and their 45 points combined propelled the Aggies to an eight-point lead with a minute and a half to play.
After going into the final 60 seconds of the game, the Miners were forced to play the foul game; and with a final block from Kaiser, the Aggies did not look back and won 66-59.
After the game, Aggie head coach Jody Adams spoke about her team’s win.
“I thought we were very locked in and focused on the game plan,” Adams said. “We were prepared for everything, they threw multiple defenses at us, and we stayed in rhythm.”
The Aggies will now prepare to host the top seeded Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. The game will be steamed on ESPN+.
