LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Hitting 1,000 points in one's collegiate career is a milestone most players will remember for the rest of their lives.
Doing so in front of one's hometown crowd, though, is something just a handful of players - Johnny McCants now included - can claim to have done.
Playing in front of the citizens of his hometown for one of the final times in his collegiate career, McCants became the fourth player on NM State's roster to eclipse the 1,000-point mark which helped the Aggies turn back a Dixie State comeback bid in a 75-64 triumph over the Trailblazers Wednesday night inside the Pan American Center.
Teddy Allen added a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double as NM State kept its place atop the WAC standings (21-4, 11-2 WAC) with five regular-season games remaining. Seattle U also got a win Wednesday night to remain tied for first place in the WAC listing with NM State.
FIRST HALF
• Mike Peake's contributions were felt immediately as the forward soared for a put-back layup on a missed three from Allen to open the game. As a matter of fact, it was Peake who pumped in the Aggies' first six points to help the hosts take a 6-4 lead a little less than five minutes into the action.
• McCants capped off the hosts' 12-7 run to begin the game with a put-back layup of his own with 13:59 left in the half. From there, though, Dixie State showed off its three-point shooting prowess to put the Aggies at a disadvantage.
• Brock Gilbert, Dancell Leter and Noa Gonsalves each drilled a trifecta through a 9-0 Dixie State run which put the hosts in a 16-12 hole just inside the 10-minute mark of the stanza.
• Having had quite enough of the Trailblazers' three-point barrage, the Aggies took off on a 15-2 run to take the lead for good. Mario McKinney Jr., injected a speedy burst of offense into the Aggies' corner by starting the surge with a mid-range hit from the far wing before Allen added a go-ahead three-pointer with 7:40 on the clock.
• In all, five Aggies turned in points through that game-changing surge with McKinney Jr., leading the charge. Six of his 10 markers came during that run including a rare four-point play which further dejected the Trailblazers.
• Hunter Schofield cut what was a nine-point NM State lead down to six with a three-point play at the 2:23 mark of the half, but NM State took to the sky to close out the half in style.
• McCants hammered home an alley-oop dunk from Jabari Rice before Will McNair Jr., added one-handed jams on the Aggies' next two offensive possessions. McKinney Jr., finished off the two-minute slam dunk contest by flushing in a two-handed fast break slam as time expired. Those dunks helped NM State end the half on an 8-2 run and also allowed it to take a 37-25 lead into the locker room at the break.
• The Aggies put in 48.5-percent (16-of-33) of their field goals through the frame, going 14-of-22 (63.6-percent) from two-point range over the course of the first 20 minutes.
SECOND HALF
• Three times inside the first 10 minutes of the final half did the Aggies see their lead reach its largest of the night (15 points). The first of those occurrences came when Rice drove right down the center of the court and punched in a soaring one-handed jam which made matters 47-32.
• A heads-up play by McKinney Jr., in which he inbounded the ball off of the posterior of a Dixie State player and finished the play with a layup through contact pushed the hosts' lead to 15, 51-36, for the penultimate time.
• Two free throw makes from Allen kept the Aggies' lead at 15, 53-38, with 8:13 left before the Trailblazers tried to manufacture an incredible comeback. Over the next 4:15, Dixie State netted 11 of the game's 15 points to pull within seven at the 4:51 mark. Frank Staine's three-pointer cut a once-comfortable NM State lead down to 57-50 before Allen answered the bell.
• The sharpshooting guard canned a massive three-pointer with 3:46 left to make the hosts' margin 10 points, 60-50, once again.
• Dixie State's last gasp came when Dancell Leter laced two foul shots with 2:21 left which pulled the visitors within four, 63-59.
• From there, though, a heavy dose of McCants and free throw shooting allowed NM State to put the Trailblazers away. McCants powered in a driving dunk off of an assist from Allen to respond to Leter's free throw makes and by hitting the first of his two free throws with 1:07 left the Las Cruces, N.M., product moved into the Aggies' ever-growing 1,000-point club.
• In all, NM State went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line over the last 67 seconds of the game to put things on ice.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• McCants stole the show with his history-making night, but Allen still got his. The Phoenix, Ariz., product submitted his second-straight double-double which was his fourth in the last six games and extended his streak of 20+ point
outings to seven-straight games. Allen is the only Aggie in the 21st century who has netted 20 or more points in seven-straight games.
• The two free throws McCants hit with 1:07 to go put him at 1,001 career points - 37th on the Aggies' all-time scoring list. By gathering up six rebounds, the Las Cruces, N.M., product hiked his career total to 715 which puts him three shy of tying Jeff Smith for 10th on the Aggies' all-time charts.
• Promoted to the starting lineup for the first time in 2022, Peake put forth his second-straight strong performance by finishing with 12 points on a 6-of-9 shooting clip. He also amassed five of the team's 38 rebounds and is averaging 14 points on a 68.4-percent showing from the field over his last two outings.
• McKinney Jr., turned in his first double-digit scoring outing of the 2022 calendar year by finishing with 10 points on a 4-of-5 night from the field.
• Bouncing back after losses in the Chris Jans coaching era continued to happen Wednesday night. NM State moved to 24-4 (.857) in games directly following a loss in Jans' tenure as head coach with the victory over Dixie State.
• NM State is one of three NCAA Division I college basketball teams this season who have had two of their players reach the 1,000-point milestone in back-to-back games. Rice reached 1,000 points in his NM State career Saturday in his team's WAC setback at Utah Valley before McCants hit that particular milestone inside the Pan American Center Wednesday night. NM State, Colorado State and UNC Wilmington all had two players reach 1,000 points in back-to-back games this season.
• NM State ran its winning streak over WAC foes inside the Pan American Center to 33 games with its fourth triumph over Dixie State. The Aggies moved to 4-0 against the Trailblazers since the series between the two teams started in March of 2021.
• For Dixie State, it failed to pick up back-to-back WAC wins despite 14 points from Schofield and another 13 courtesy of Leter. Four different Trailblazers racked up 10 or more points, but they finished with a -13 (38-25) disadvantage on the glass.
COMING UP NEXT
• Back on the road once again, NM State's next destination is Phoenix, Ariz., and the always-packed GCU Arena for a premier Saturday night showdown with Grand Canyon. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. as NM State seeks its first regular-season sweep of the Lopes since 2019-20.
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