The final score was actually closer than we expected but a WAC road win is nothing to discount or minimize. We know the Vandals are primarily a new version -- let's hope they are an improved one.
New Mexico State Aggies win WAC opener on the road at Idaho
Jason Groves
Las Cruces Sun-News
1/03/2008
MOSCOW, Idaho - In front of a sparse crowd, the Aggies ended their road woes with a 78-68 victory over Idaho on Wednesday.
New Mexico State opened the Western Athletic Conference schedule with their first road win in eight tries this season, entering Saturday's home game against Fresno State at 7-9.
"It's such a long road," said NMSU head coach Marvin Menzies, who is now 1-0 in the WAC. "I should be more excited, but I can't stop thinking about Fresno State."
After a torrid first half where each team was 15-for-30 from the field, both teams cooled off early in the second half, but it was the Vandals who were ice cold from the field.
"We were just missing," said Idaho forward Clyde Johnson, whose team fell to 3-9 and 0-1 in the WAC. "They were playing us different, opening up the middle so that's how we came back, but we just weren't hitting shots and you can't win if you can't score."
Idaho knocked down six 3-pointers in the first half. The Vandals couldn't bring the Aggies out of their zone in the second half and the Aggies started to create easy opportunities off of long rebounds from missed 3s. Aggies sophomore guard Jonathan Gibson grabbed one of his five rebounds at the free throw lane and raced the length of the court, kissing a right-handed floater off the glass from the left side of the lane to put NMSU up 56-49 with 14:43 left.
"We zoned them a lot in the second half," Aggies senior center Martin Iti said. "We talked more to get through those screens."
Idaho came back to tie it at 61-61 with 9:25 to play, but the Aggies held off the Vandals by shooting 7-for-8 from the foul line in the last 42.3 seconds for their seventh win of the season...
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