LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Once again, NM State has protected their home floor as they emerged victorious from a back-and-forth battle with Liberty in the Pan American Center on Thursday night. In front of nearly 5,000 fans, the Aggies (10-12, 4-3 CUSA) took down the Flames (13-9, 2-5 CUSA) in overtime, 79-73.
 
Individually, the Aggies were led by a season-high 27 points from Christian Cook who exploded late in the second half. Cook also received help from Femi Odukale who logged his first double-double in an Aggie uniform – finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four assists. Jaden Harris also chipped in with 17 points in his starting role, including knocking down three of his six 3-point attempts.
 
As a team, NM State shot 41.5% from the field and shot 31.6% from beyond the arc. Despite being outscored 32-30 in the paint, the Aggies made up the deficit by doubling up the Flames in second-chance points (14-7).
 
FIRST HALF

• Coming out of the gate, Liberty would get on the scoreboard first with a shot from beyond the arc from Kaden Metheny from the top of the key. This kick started an 8-2 run within the first two minutes of play with Kyle Rode chipping in five of those points. 
• After a slower than preferred start, the Aggies got it going with six quick points from a behind-the-arc shot and three free throws by junior guard Jaden Harris which propelled NM State to a 10-2 run to take its first lead of the game with with 14:48 left in the first half. 
• Over the rest of the half, both teams would wind up keeping each other within arm's reach, managing to tie the score on four separate occasions over the last 10 minutes of the first half. Finishing out the first half of play, the Aggies got points from six different players with Christian Cook leading the way with nine points going (4-6) from the field.

 
SECOND HALF

• After trading baskets for the first eight minutes of the second half, Tanahj Pettway injected some life into the Pan American Center as he tracked down an offensive rebound before finishing a layup through contact to leave the Aggie deficit at four points with 12:32 remaining.
• Moments later, Kaosi Ezeagu imposed his will as he set a brick wall screen and then added to the Aggies' tally of second-chance points as he followed a missed layup and finished at the rim to chip into a Liberty lead which had grown to seven points.
• The Aggies eventually trimmed the lead down to three when Femi Odukale, who appeared to be stuck on the baseline with no outlet, found a way to step through the defender and finish with a scoop layup to put the Aggies within one. Moments later, Christian Cook came off of a screen amid an out-of-bounds play and knocked down a baseline jumper to give the Aggies their first lead since the 6:33 mark of the first half.

• Following a quick five-point stretch from the Flames, Jonathan Kanyanga provided a spark off the bench as he took a pass from Cook and finished at the rim to put the Aggies down just one point with 4:29 on the clock. The very next Liberty possession ended with a shot that was pinned to the backboard by Kanyanga which immediately led to a transition three from Jaden Harris – putting the Aggies ahead by two points.
• Later, Christian Cook entered takeover mode as he scored the final seven Aggie points, including a pull-up jumper with 2:06 on the clock to put the Aggies in front and a massive go-ahead 3-pointer with just 26 seconds remaining that sent the crowd into oblivion and allowed the Aggies to ultimately force overtime.

 
OVERTIME

• Cook's production continued into the extra period as hit a pair of free throws to start the scoring in overtime.
• With 2:58 left, Liberty's Peebles hit a jump shot to even the score once again. However, this would be the final time that the Flames would alter the scoreboard as back-to-back made shots from Jaden Harris and Christian Cook put the Aggies ahead 77-73 with just 26 seconds left on the clock. Harris later made two free throws to put the game out of reach.

 
NUMBERS OF NOTE

• With the win, NM State moves to 10-1 inside the Pan American Center which has once again become one of the hardest places to play in college basketball.
• Christian Cook finished with a season-high and game-high 27 points. This also came up just two points shy of his career high. Cook also finished the night with six rebounds to equal his career high. Cook's 27 points also marks the most in a single game by any Aggie this season.
• Jaden Harris connected on a career-high six free throws – going 6-7 at the charity stripe.
• Femi Odukale pieced together his second career double-double as he posted 11 points and 10 rebounds in the win.
• NM State forced Zach Cleveland into six turnovers which equals the most by an opposing individual this season.
• As a team, the Aggies converted on 19 of their 23 free throw attempts to finish with a 82.6% success rate for the game. This marks the highest in a CUSA game this season and best performance since going 25-28 at Tulsa on Dec. 22.
• Liberty was ice cold from deep range – making just six threes on 31 attempts to mark the lowest 3-point percentage (19.4%) by any Aggie opponent this season.

 
QUOTES
Jason Hooten addressing ejection of Robert Carpenter
"First and foremost, I just want to apologize to Liberty University and Coach McKay for the incident. First of all, that's not the way that we're going to do things here at New Mexico State University. I think everybody knows me and knows the type of coach that I am and our program will never do those kind of things so I just want to apologize.
 
Jason Hooten on what it took to win the game
"I thought that our guys just played really, really tough and I thought we did what it took to win a really good game against a great basketball team."