KANSAS CITY - Beset by more bad news on the injury front when it learned in late Janaury leading scorer Trevelin Queen was to miss two weeks with a knee injury, the New Mexico State men's basketball team has done one thing on a consistent basis: pound the ball inside.

Because it's there that senior Ivan Aurrecoechea does his best work and over the last five games he has gone from a run-of-the-mill Spaniard to the WAC's most feared conquistador. 

The Spaniard sparkled once again, matching his career with 23 points, helped the Aggies build up a 16-point second half lead and NM State held off a hard charge by Kansas City in the game's final 3:10 to claim a 67-61 triumph over the Roos Saturday night in the Swinney Recreation Center. 

FIRST HALF
• Spurred onward with the hopes of knocking off the WAC's top team, the Roos came out as the clear aggressors in the showdown and jumped out to a 4-0 lead courtesy of a pair of scores by Jordan Giles in the first 1:13. 
• NM State answered with back-to-back buckets by Aurrecoechea and though the Aggies never grabbed the lead through the opening frame the Spaniard made sure his squad never fell out of contention. 
• Little by little, the Aggies were forced to chip away at a Kansas City lead that increased to as many as eight points. NM State was up to the task, however, as Shunn Buchanan pulled the visitors within two by driving in for an easy layup. 
• Right after Buchanan's uncontested layup that pulled the Aggies within two, 20-18, the Roos opened up their biggest lead of the game. Fueled partially by Giles and partly by a three-pointer off the mitts of Marvin Nesbitt., Jr., Kansas City scored seven of the next nine points to take a 27-20 lead with 3:16 left in the frame. 
• The Aggies, however, punched back with a 7-0 run of their own. Jabari Rice started the surge with a pair of free throw makes, Buchanan converted another driving layup and Terrell Brown evened the game up for the first time since the 15:11 mark by swishing a straight-line triple after William McNair took to the sky to corral an important offensive board. 
• Giles concluded the half with a three-pointer of his own, however, to put the Roos on top at the break 30-27. 
• Kansas City put up some scorching hot shooting numbers in the first frame, converting 60-percent (12-of-20) of their shots. Giles was the primary source of offense by striking for 10 on 4-of-6 shooting in the frame. 
• For the Aggies, Aurrecoechea's nine on 4-of-7 shooting paced the team while Brown came up with six. 

SECOND HALF
• Once the Aggies made their halftime adjustments - especially on the defensive end - the Roos were at a loss for the majority of the second half. Brown capped a 9-2 Aggies surge through the first 2:51 with a pull-up jumper that handed the visitors a 36-32 edge. 
• Kansas City countered with a 5-0 run culminating with a three-pointer off the mitts of Rob Whitfield to regain the lead, but Aurrecoechea knocked down a pair of free throws on the other end to spark another 7-2 surge by the visitors. Those free throw makes put the Aggies ahead 38-37 with 15:37 left and from there the visitors never fell behind again. 
• Things were still nip-and-tuck for the Aggies after Giles pulled the Roos within two, 45-43, with a mid-range jumper at the 11:39 mark, but that's when the Aggies turned up the defensive head considerably. 
• Over the course of the next 8:12, NM State made life miserable for the Roos on their end of the court by limiting the home team to only three points and on field goal make. Fortunately, thanks to the play of Aurrecoechea, the Aggies suffered from no such deficiencies on their end of the floor. 
• Through the visitors' 17-3 run over that span, the Spaniard either scored or assisted on a stretch of 10 consecutive points for NM State. Aurrecoechea, faced with numerous one-on-one situations down on the block, cooked whatever defender the Roos threw at him with a dazzling array of post moves before giving way to Rice. 
• After Johnny McCants hammered home a two-handed put-back jam, Rice canned a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock with 4:15 left and followed that up with a driving layup on the Aggies' ensuing possession that pushed the visitors' lead to 62-46 with 3:27 to go. 
• From there, however, NM State had to hold on as the Roos made a last gasp comeback bid. Hardnett and Whitfield each hit three-pointers and the latter added an old-fashioned three-point play that capped an 11-0 run by the home team. That play cut the Aggies' lead down to 62-57 with 51 second to go, but that's when Shunn Buchanan channeled his inner Patrick Mahomes in the city of the reigning Super Bowl champions. 
• After Rice and Hardnett swapped free throw makes to keep the Roos within five, 64-59, Buchanan launched a full court pass to a sprinting McCants who laid it in while getting hammered in the process to hike the Aggies' lead back up to seven, 66-59, with 25 seconds to go. 
• That effectively sealed the game and Rice split a pair of free throw attempts with eight seconds to go to account for the final score. 

KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Aurrecoechea absolutely shined, matching his career-high while corralling four rebounds. The Spaniard had his fair share of help, however, as Rice added 13 and five rebounds. Brown concluded an effective night with 10 points and a game-high three assists. 
• McCants finished just shy of his second double-double, generating nine points and nine rebounds. 
• Giles put in a team-high 20 for the Roos, but no other Kansas City player came up with more than nine points in the team's second-straight loss. 
• With the win, NM State remained perfect in WAC play and extended its winning streak - the nation's fifth-longest - to 12 games. NM State also added another win to its winning streak over WAC opponents (28 games) and its run of consecutive regular season WAC wins (25). 
• Head coach Chris Jans has now won 13 consecutive games in the month of February dating back to the 2017-18 season. 
• Jans is also two wins away from reaching 100 victories as an NCAA Division I head coach. 

COMING UP NEXT
• Once they return to Las Cruces Sunday afternoon, the Aggies won't leave that city for two weeks. Each of NM State's next three games takes place inside the friendly confines of the Pan Am Center and that stretch starts Thursday night when Seattle U comes calling. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. 

++NM State++