Opening Tip
• New Mexico State (6-8, 1-1 WAC) makes their eighth road trip of the season (first of 2023) to take on Utah Valley in Orem, Utah Wednesday, Jan. 4^th, at 6 p.m. (MT)
• The Aggies were recently defeated at home by Southern Utah (61-58) last Saturday on New Year's Eve.
• The Wolverines also dropped their New Year's Eve matchup to Utah Tech (68-58).
• Historically, NM State has dominated the matchup with the UVU, going 15-5 since 2008. However, the Wolverines have taken the last three contest by a combined score of 182-130.
 
Last Time Out
• NM State dropped their New Year's Eve matchup at home last Saturday to Southern Utah, 61-58.
• The Aggies led the Thunderbirds most of the way only trailing for nine minutes the whole contest.
• Molly Kaiser had herself another great performance after matching her season high in points (18) and coming just two points shy of her career high (20).
• Shania Harper had herself nice outing as well scoring 12 points for her second highest total of the year.
• Ene Adams was dominate on the glass once again as she tied her career high in boards with 10.
• After hitting on 50% of their shots in the first half, the Aggies offence struggled to find a rhythm in the second half, especially in the final quarter, hitting on just 24% of their shots in the final 20 minutes of action.
• The Aggies defense was putting in work again forcing 22 turnovers in the game and holding the Thunderbirds to just two made threes.
 
Nail Biting Finishes
• 11 of the Aggies 14 games this season have all been decided by single digits with seven of those games being within two possessions or less.
• Nine straight games had been decided by single digits before NM State faced Northern NM at home Dec. 20, dominating the eagles by 48 (90-42).
 
Double Trouble
• The veteran guard pair of Molly Kaiser (11.5) and Sylena Peterson (10.1) lead the Aggies in scoring this season. Kaiser has scored double figures in over half of the Aggies games this season and is averaging 13.6 points per game over her last three contests.
• Sylena Peterson managed to score 11 points off the bench for the Aggies during their win against UTRGV in the conference opener (Dec. 29). Her best game came on Dec. 3 in a loss to Idaho in her native town of San Diego. Peterson put up her first career double-double in that game igniting for 22 points, 13 rebounds and five steals.
 
Defense Travels
• NM State is allowing just 60.2 points a game to their opponents this season which is the third lowest average amongst WAC schools thus far. Only two teams have scored 70+ points on the Aggies this season: Colorado (85) and Yale (73).
• The team also carries the second highest turnover margin in the WAC at +3.42 forcing 19.15 turnovers a contest.
 
Big Ene Energy
• Ene Adams didn't get a lot of playing time to start the season due to injury but has played a huge role for the Aggies off the bench the past few weeks, enough so that Jody Adams elected to start the junior forward the Aggies last two times out.
• Adams has been a fierce force on the glass averaging 5.3 rebounds a game this season and 7.4 boards over her last five games.  
 
Scouting the Wolverines
• Utah Valley (4-9, 1-1 WAC) enters play Wednesday 1-1 in WAC play after winning their conference opener to GCU (65-63, 2OT) and dropping their last game to Utah Tech (68-58).
• The Wolverines other three wins came against Park University (59-54), Northwest Nazarene (76-72) and Idaho (59-57), who the Aggies lost to earlier this season (68-62) in the San Diego Winter Classic.
• The Wolverines are averaging 51.9 points a game while giving season up 66.5 points to opponents this.
• The Team is led by 6'1'' sophomore forward Jaeden Brown who leads the team in five different categories: Scoring (13.2), FG percentage (.500), FT percentage (.763), rebounds (8.7) and blocks (2.3).
 
Up Next
• The Aggies will finally get a break from travel following their date with the Wolverines as they are scheduled to play three straight games at home after playing 10 of their last 15 games away from Las Cruces. Tarleton is first on the slate when the Aggies play the Texas Jan. 7^th, at 4 p.m. Sam Houston (Jan. 12) and Utah Tech (Jan 14) are the other two teams set to make their way to Las Cruces for the three game home stand.