EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – In front of 10,511 people at the Don Haskins Center, the UTEP men’s basketball team, while rocking Texas Western throwbacks, played its way to a dominant 74-49 win over New Mexico State in the second Battle of I-10 rivalry meeting of the 2023-24 season on Saturday night.
With the win, UTEP avenged its loss to NMSU it suffered on Jan. 4 at the Pan American Center and has split the season series against their new Conference USA foe.
Tae Hardy led UTEP to victory as he scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor in the contest. Six of Hardy’s seven made field goals in the game were three-pointers. Hardy caught fire in the start out as he recorded 12 of UTEP’s first 18 points of the game. Hardy finished the first half alone with 16 points and five made three pointers.
True freshman David Terrell Jr. popped off in the second half to kick start UTEP’s rout of NMSU. Terrell Jr. scored all 12 of his points in the second half of the game. Terrell Jr. was the only other Miner to finish the game in double figures in the scoring category.
As a team, UTEP shot 41% from the floor, 42% from three-point land, and 57% from the free throw line. UTEP out rebounded New Mexico State 48-33 overall and had 22 second chance points compared to NMSU’s three points. UTEP’s bench also came to play as they recorded 29 bench points.
New Mexico State’s Jaden Harris was the only Aggie player to reach double figures in the scoring department. Harris had 20 points, 18 of them coming in the first half, on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor.
The three-ball was not falling for NMSU. As a team, New Mexico State shot 2-of-19 (10.5%) from three-point land. New Mexico State finished the contest shooting 34.6% from the floor as it made only 18 shots on 52 total field goal attempts.
UTEP jumped out to a 12-0 lead to start the game thanks to two Hardy three-pointers, an Otis Frazier III three-pointer, and a three-point play by Calvin Solomon.
New Mexico State’s Jaden Harris kept the Aggies in the game in the first half. Harris drained a three-pointer at the 07:50 mark of the first half to make it a five-point game with UTEP still in the lead, 22-17.
An Otis Fraizer III lay-up with 22 seconds left in the first half gave UTEP a 35-27 lead over NMSU once halftime rolled around.
During halftime, UTEP honored the program’s all-time leading scorer, Stefon Jackson. Jackson, who played at UTEP from 2005 to 2009, had his number 12 jersey number hung up in the rafters of the Don Haskins Center.
In the second half, New Mexico State managed to cut its deficit down to six points with 15:29 to go in the game, but that’s the lowest the deficit would get for the Aggies.
In the next 10:01 of the game, UTEP would go onto outscore NMSU, 25-8 and built a 67-44 lead with 05:28 left in the game. In that span of 10:01, UTEP freshman David Terrell Jr. scored 10 of his 12 points in the game.
UTEP kept its foot on the gas pedal and ended up going up as much as 27 points, 74-47, its largest lead of the game, before NMSU’s Tanahj Pettway scored a lay-up with 16 seconds left to make the final score 74-49, UTEP.
UTEP, who is now 12-3 at home this season, improves to 13-11 overall and 4-5 in Conference USA.
New Mexico State, who is now 0-10 in true road games this season, falls to 11-13 overall and 5-4 in Conference USA.
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