Fresno State
New Mexico State
Fresno State Edged On The Road By New Mexico State
1/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2006
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico State had five players in double figures and held off a second-half Fresno State rally to beat the Bulldogs 73-70 Thursday night in Western Athletic Conference action.
Elijah Ingram led the Aggies with 17 points, followed by Tyrone Nelson with 15, David Fisher with 13, Mike Mitchell with 12 and Ted Knauber with 10.
The Aggies (6-8, 2-1) led by 14 points, 59-45, with 12 minutes left when Fresno State began its rally. The Bulldogs (8-5, 1-1) scored 12 unanswered points to make it 59-57 with 9:03 to go.
During the final 12 minutes of the game, the Aggies had 12 turnovers to Fresno State's three. NMSU's turnovers led to easy baskets for Fresno State. The Aggies finished with 27 turnovers.
The Bulldogs remained close the rest of the game and took their only lead of the second half, 70-69, with 1:38 to play when JaVance Coleman converted a three-point play. Ingram put NMSU in the lead, 71-70, on a drive to the basket at 1:18.
Mitchell clinched the win for the Aggies with an offensive rebound, a steal and a pair of free throws in the final seconds. A 3-point attempt by Coleman with two seconds to play was off the mark.
Coleman led the Bulldogs with a game-high 26 points, going 5 for 13 from behind the 3-point line. Quinton Hosley added 14 for Fresno State, while Dwight ONeil had 12.
The start of the game was delayed 20 minutes because of technical difficulties with the scoreboard. Once the game started, NMSU took control and rushed out to a 20-11 lead, thanks to a 10-0 run. Fresno State closed the gap to 36-31 by halftime.
"We came out in the first half and played individual ball instead of team ball," Fresno State head coach Steve Cleveland said. "I really thought that we would start the second half off on the right foot but it took until the final 11 minutes of the game to play Bulldog basketball."We started to guard as a team,forced turnovers and got stops," Cleveland stated. "We did not have a 40 minute effort tonight. Too many senseless turnovers. Everything that could wrong did for us tonight. While New Mexico State's big guys did a nice job, it was really a game of two teams trying not to loose.
"I'm disappointed on how the game ended," Cleveland added. "We got beat because we did not play hard or intelligent ball. We need to put ourselves in a position to win. We can't get away from what we do well. We can be better and we're going to learn that we can not play individual ball. We have another test on Saturday and I'm hoping that we've learned something from tonight and give a better performance on Saturday against Louisiana Tech. Our success comes from working hard an entire game and we can never afford any shortcuts."
Fresno State continues its WAC road trip with a stop in Ruston, La., when the Bulldogs take on Louisiana Tech on Saturday. Undefeated in WAC play with a 3-0 mark, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs picked up a 65-62 win over Hawai'i this evening.
