Rebounding from a nail-biting overtime loss (91-88) against the University of Texas at El Paso on Feb. 7, the New Mexico State University Aggies went head-to-head with the Liberty University Flames on Feb. 11.
While a swaying score left fans on the edge of their seats early on, a thundering 3-pointer shot by Anthony Wrzeszcz and an 8-point scoring stretch for Julius Mims allowed the Aggies to stay close on the heels of the Flames. LU currently places first in Conference USA (20-3) compared to the Aggies in 11th place and (11-12) record.
Nearly halfway done with the first half, a 17-15 Liberty lead hung over the Pan American Center, but with a 10-9 NMSU rebound lead so far, hopes remained high to snag dominance on the court.
LU’s Colin Porter posed a threat to NMSU’s defense, establishing himself as the Flames’ top scorer in the game with seven points thus far, but was still barely behind Mims at eight points.
Wrzeszcz then nailed in his second 3-pointer of the night to kickstart the crowd with a 20-20 tie with eight minutes to go, followed by Jemel Jones’ back-to-back points to carry on a team 9-point scoring streak before being cut off by LU’s JJ Harper with five points of his own.
With the half’s time dipping below five minutes, the pressure to gain on LU’s lead of 30-26 was palpable in the air, until a dunk by Mims tied the teams at 30-30 with a minute and 23 seconds remaining. Then, with two final free throw points by Aggie Jae’Coby Osborne sealed off the first half at 30-32.
After recognizing NMSU athletes with 3.0 or higher GPA at the halftime break, Liberty was first back on the board, outpacing NMSU early at 38-32 within the first three minutes of the new half.
“I think our guys played well enough to win, [but] we just didn’t finish,” Head Coach Jason Hooten said. “We played well enough to win last Saturday, [and] we just didn’t finish.”
Eliciting cheers from even the most stoic of Aggie fans, Jones and Mims executed a 12-point combined run, highlighted with a 3-pointer, layup, and jump shot for Mims, and a dunk, 3-pointer, and jump shot for Jones to send the crowd into an uproar.
“I don’t want to say we deserve to win that game, but I think we’re [going to] deserve to win one of these here pretty quick, and hopefully sooner than later,” Hooten said.
Moving up to the head of the pack, Jones’ second half breakout landed him as the top scorer for NMSU at 20 points in the first 10 minutes, surpassing Mims with 12 and nearing his season best of 28, achieved against Missouri State last month.
Entering the final five minutes after a fierce back-and-forth offensive battle, the score once again sat tied at 62-62, teetering within a few points until a last-second shot by the Flames pushed them just barely ahead, freezing the final score at another close Aggie loss of 75-77.
“Just [a] tough game, tough way to lose,” Hooten said. “That’s two straight games that we just hadn’t had things go our way.”
![Group leaders [left to right] Jacarthie Brazil, Kira Baum, Carter-Elise Keating, and Abby Watkins pose for a picture after a successful interview. April 21, 2026.](https://nmsuroundup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/01_AnnaB_Health-Club_LowRes.jpg)
