ST. GEORGE, Utah - Yes, one of the primary points of the game of basketball is indeed to put the orange thing in the orange thing, but setting - and controlling - the tone on the glass is an important component as well.

With rebounding foremost on its collective mind, the NM State men's basketball team continued to do the one thing it has done on a continued basis in the month of March: win.

Sixteen of Jabari Rice's game-high 20 points came in the opening frame, Johnny McCants amassed 10 of his game-high 12 rebounds by crashing the offensive glass and the Aggies held off a late charge by Dixie State to secure a 76-66 victory inside Burns Arena Friday night.

FIRST HALF
• Intent on making a statement in their first-ever showdown with NM State, the Trailblazers netted the game's first five points before the Aggies snapped out of their 0-for-6 funk from the field.
• On the possession after Hunter Schofield extended Dixie State's lead to 5-0, Rice buried the first of his four first-half three-pointers to start a 6-0 NM State run. Evan Gilyard II closed out the surge with a triple of his own to hand the visitors their first lead of the night.
• Following another quick 5-0 spurt by Dixie State, the Aggies took control. Rice and Gilyard II bookended a 10-0 NM State surge with long balls, giving the visitors a 16-10 edge with 14:00 remaining on the clock.
• NM State's lead fluctuated between two and seven points until the final five minutes of the frame. Following an Isaiah Pope three-pointer that cut the Aggies' lead to 32-28, Marcus Watson kick-started a 13-5 NM State run by converting a nifty reverse layup off of a feed from Rice.
• Donne Tillman contributed six of his 13 points on the night through that surge and wrapped up the run with put-back layup to make matters 45-33.
• Though Dixie State's Cameron Gooden canned a three-pointer with 1:37 left that pulled the hosts within nine, 45-36, at the break, NM State had the lion's share of the momentum in its corner at that point.
• Gilyard II, Rice and Tillman combined to generate 36 of the Aggies' 45 first-half points. At the first-half horn, McCants had amassed five points as well as eight rebounds to help NM State put up shooting splits of .459/.350/.667.

SECOND HALF
• Hoping to put the game out of reach, the Aggies turned up the intensity a notch of two early on in the deciding frame.
• Through the first 7:01 of the final stanza, NM State took off on a 15-6 run to hike its lead to 18 points.
• Wilfried Likayi - who was making his first appearnce after missing the previous three games - drained a corner three during that surge, Will McNair threw down a driving one-handed dunk and C.J. Roberts wrapped up the run with a fast-break layup to make the score 60-42.
• Undeterred, Dixie State began the long process of battling back. Through the next 7:36, the Trailblazers took off on a 17-4 scoring spree of their own and used a multi-pronged attack to get back in it. Six Dixie State players generated points during that run with Schofield capping it off by draining a pair of foul shot with 5:23 left.
• Following those free throw makes, NM State found itself clinging to a 64-59 lead. The Aggies hadn't hit a field goal in nearly eight minutes, but Roberts changed that when he splashed a second-chance three-pointer at the five-minute mark to stop the Trailblazers' run.
• Roberts' trifecta was the starting point of a game-clinching 10-0 surge by the visitors. Rice essentially sealed the deal by coldly connecting on his fifth and final three-pointer with 2:44 to go. That long-range hit made NM State's lead 74-59 and proved to be too much for Dixie State to recover from.

KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Rice's 20-point effort was his third of the 2020-21 season while Tillman finished with 13. Those two were just two of the four Aggies who finished in double-digits as Gilyard II wrapped up his night with 12. Roberts added 10 off the bench, helping the visitors claim a 22-19 edge in bench scoring.
• With McCants on the Aggies' side, Dixie State didn't have a chance at winning the rebounding war. Though he only finished with six points, the Las Cruces, N.M., product's season-high 12 boards featured 10 of the offensive variety. It helped McCants match his career-best offensive rebounding output and represented the most offensive rebounds by an Aggie since McCants generated 10 in a WAC setback at California Baptist on Jan. 3, 2019.
• NM State enjoyed a 43-29 (+14) advantage on the glass against Dixie State. That figure included a 24-8 (+16) edge in offensive rebounding and as a result NM State wrapped up Friday night's tilt with a 21-11 edge in second-chance points.
• Schofield contributed 20 points to the Trailblazers' cause while Gooden turned in 16 as well as a game-high five assists.
• NM State won its 14th consecutive regular season game in the month of March. That stretch dates back to the year 2013. 
• Head coach Chris Jans is a perfect 6-0 in regular season games during the month of March as the Aggies' bench boss. Against WAC teams in March, Jans is the owner of a perfect 12-0 record and overall he's 12-2 in the month as NM State's head coach.

COMING UP NEXT
• With their sights set on a three-game WAC winning streak, the Aggies enter Burns Arena again Saturday night for their second and final showdown with the Trailblazers. NM State's regular-season finale will begin at 7:00 p.m.

++NM State++