No one expected the Mustangs to challenge the defending WAC and 2015-16 pre-season pick to repeat and the final score shows that was an accurate assessment as the Aggies of NMSU downed Western 80-39. But there were some bright spots for Coach Jeff Law as he got a look at lots of new faces donning the purple and gold.
The Aggies raced out to a 10-0 lead before WNMU got on the board with a Carter Aby three point shot. Aby would also put up the next 3 points before Adam Kessler nailed a three followed by back to back layups from Emery Range.
NMSU had built the lead to 17 with about 7 minutes to go in the first half and the Stangs would hang tough as Brandon Williams hit a jumper to trim the lead to 15. But the size of the Aggies was too much for the Mustangs and they'd rebuild the lead to 19 at intermission on several inside dunks.
The home team started the second half as they'd started the game with a 10-0 run but Western would answer as Williams and Steven Loucks would hit a pair of threes followed by a tip in by Aby for a Mustang 8-0 run. The Mustangs would not get any closer than that as the Aggies pushed the margin to 41 to close out the game.
But Coach Law was pleased with the hustle by his team and the fact that they forced 21 NM State turnovers. The three point shooting was solid for the Mustangs as well. Aby led the way in scoring with 8 points while Kessler and Loucks posted 7 a piece. Range pulled down a team high 6 rebounds.
WNMU will continue their exhibition pre-season run with a game at Arizona State on Saturday at noon.