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    • NMSU men’s basketball survives TAMU-CC comeback to win in final seconds
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    NMSU men’s basketball survives TAMU-CC comeback to win in final seconds

    Vaseline Posted on

    New Mexico State led by 21 points with 16 minutes remaining – 15 minutes later the Aggies were hanging on by a thread.

    NM State (3-0) went nearly 10 minutes without a basket against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-3) between 6:35 and 9:07 of the second half, allowing the Islanders to slowly chip away at the large deficit. When graduate student forward Robert Carpenter finally took the lid off the net, the Aggies’ lead was just 12 points. Soon it was just single digits as NM State’s shooting spree continued in the second half.

    The game came down to the last play. Senior guard Christian Cook missed one of two free throws before A&M-CC’s Isaac Williams missed a 3-pointer. The Islanders’ Garry Clark put in a two-point bucket, but it didn’t matter as the Aggies still won 83-82 at home on Thursday night.

    It’s still a win for NM State, but they feel fortunate to have earned it.

    “We feel blessed to win that game,” Aggies coach Jason Hooten said. “It’s new for these guys to just learn how to put people aside. You can’t simulate in practice what happened at the end of the game… I thought we just couldn’t do it in the last three or four minutes stop them.”

    NM State started off great on offense, shooting 48.5% from the floor in the first half with 10 of 11 players scoring points. But the Aggies shot just 32.1% in the second half, while the Islanders shot 47.2% in the final 20 minutes and scored six of their last 11 baskets.

    More: New Mexico State women’s basketball: Aggies lose first game of 2024-2025 season to UTSA

    A&M-CC made it a one-score game at 80-77 with 19 seconds left on a layup, and the Aggies had to finish off the Islanders. It would have been easy to panic, but senior guard Dionte Bostick kept NM State calm during an ensuing timeout.

    They did that, and they were able to score a little more and make the stops necessary to win.

    “We just had to stay relaxed,” Bostick said. “I feel like when you get nervous and anxious, you lose that moment. We had to come together.”

    After the 1-2 start to last season, 3-0 is a positive start; However, NM State has work to do. Hooten says he hasn’t found his ideal rotation yet, and believes his team hasn’t found the right cohesion and maturity with more than a dozen new players.

    But Hooten believes the Aggies have potential, something they will unlock over time.

    “It feels a lot better than this time last year,” Hooten said. “We’re not quite convinced yet of the way I want to play, and I think once we do that, this team will take off.”

    Cherenfant impresses in the starting line-up

    Sophomore guard Carl Cherenfant started his first game for NM State against Utah Tech on Saturday and got another chance to prove himself against A&M-CC.

    The transfer from Memphis kept his spot in the starting lineup, scoring 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting. Cherenfant fouled with less than two minutes to go, but was able to contribute.

    Hooten likes having Cherenfant in the starting lineup as he believes his 6-foot-10 size helps the Aggies on the wing.

    “He’s had some good practices. We usually reward people with (good) practices,” Hooten said. “That position was a little bit open… I think we changed our team a little bit, because Carl gave us some resilience and some size.”

    Cherenfant averaged just 4.2 minutes per game last season at Memphis and says he feels better with more playing time at NM State.

    “Everything just got more comfortable for me,” Cherenfant said. “Basically playing at the college level and getting some good minutes, and just adjusting to it.”

    More: An update on every New Mexico State football transfer: Pavia, Rowser, Thomas and more

    A four-game road trip lies ahead

    The Aggies have a 10-day trip away from Las Cruces, and it won’t be easy for them.

    NM State plays Dayton (3-0) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. before facing UNLV three days later. The former made the NCAA tournament last season, while the latter was picked in a preseason poll to finish in the top-5 of the Mountain West Conference. The Aggies will next participate in the Arizona Tip-Off in Tempe against Pepperdine and one of Weber State or Bowling Green from November 29-30.

    Hooten and Cherenfant are excited and believe the four games provide an “opportunity” to make a statement.

    “We know it’s going to be a beast,” Hooten said. “It gives us the opportunity to play against really good people and just get better. That’s what we’ve done so far. When you play against good people, you see who you are.”

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