EL PASO - After 28 days without a game, bouncing from Arizona, to New Mexico and - finally - Texas, there was unquestionably a little bit of rust the NM State men's basketball team had to shake off when they finally took the court once again.
Inside the Don Haskins Center in El Paso Monday evening, NM State made a couple of sizable steps in the right direction with WAC play looming later this week.
Wilfried Likayi turned in a game-high 20 points, Evan Gilyard II netted all 12 of his point in the first half and the Aggies secured a 70-41 victory over Western New Mexico in yet another neutral site tilt for the ultimate road warriors.
FIRST HALF
• Early on in NM State's first showdown in nearly a month, the Aggies saw their offense run entirely through Likayi. The redshirt junior pumped in NM State's first five points before the Mustangs tallied the next six to go ahead 6-5 just 5:13 into the contest.
• From there, the tone of the first half shifted to that of a back-and-forth one as neither team was able to string together much offense. For the Aggies, it was due to the fact that they hadn't taken the court in almost 30 days. For the Mustangs, fatigue may have played a factor as they were playing their fourth game in five days.
• Simply put, Gilyard II was the different for the Aggies as they started to pull away at the tail end of the frame. Kick-starting his squad's stagnant offense, the Chicago, Ill., product netted 10 of his 12 first-half markers through the last 2:49.
• Gilyard II split his damage equally from the free throw stripe and from the field, going 5-5 from the line in that span. In the final second of the half, the senior was fouled hard on a three-point try. With 0.8 seconds left on the clock, he sank all three freebies and the Aggies went on to receive the ball as a result of the flagrant foul call. King spied Gilyard II on the far wing, handed over the inbounds pass watched as Gilyard II canned a deep triple at the horn.
SECOND HALF
• Sparked by Gilyard II's individual scoring outburst to conclude the first half, NM State really started to open things up in the infancy of the final frame. Likayi and Johnny McCants connected on back-to-back three pointers to hike NM State's lead to 11, 37-26, with 18:00 to go.
• The Mustangs managed to make it a single-digit affair twice more in the ensuing minutes, but Will McNair punched home a powerful one-handed slam which made matters 42-31 with 14:01 to go and from there the Aggies' lead remained in double digits.
• NM State continued to pour it on for the remainder of the frame, showing a great deal more tenacity on defense in order to finally pull away in earnest. Tennessee Owens' three-pointer with 2:02 left pushed the Aggies' edge to 31, 68-37.
• Unwilling to give up anything easy to the Mustangs, NM State held their foes to a shooting clip of 18.2-percent (4-of-22) through the second half.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Likayi put forth a game and career-high 20 points to help lead the Aggies to victory. Gilyard II chipped in 12 in all and sat out for a big part of the second half.
• NM State's newest player, Gerald Doakes, put on a show in his 14 minutes of action, too. The springy freshman contributed 11 points and three rebounds off of the bench.
• The win was the first for NM State since Dec. 1.
COMING UP NEXT
• A familiar city - Phoenix, Ariz. - is the Aggies' next destination as they prepare to begin Western Athletic Conference action this weekend. NM State is set to duke it out with league rival Grand Canyon this weekend at the GCU Arena. Game one of the two-game set is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. Friday night with the second showdown between the two teams scheduled for the same time Saturday.
++NM State++
