SEATTLE – The New Mexico State men's basketball team had a great start to its road swing with a dominating 87-60 victory over Seattle U Thursday night at the Redhawk Center.
 
The Aggie offense was much more alive to start the game, getting off to a quick 6-2 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers from Clayton Henry and Terrell Brown.
 
With an 8-7 lead at the under-16 media break, JoJo Zamora scored six-straight before heading into the next media timeout with an 18-11 lead thanks to a 10-4 run led by the redshirt-senior. A three by Zamora out of the break followed by put-back from Eli Chuha forced the first of two timeouts by the Redhawks.
 
NM State (14-4, 3-1 WAC) continued to shoot well from the floor late in the first half, knocking down 13-of-20 shots – including five from deep – for the 39-20 lead. The hot-shooting Aggies finished the half with a .621 shooting clip (18-of-29) from the floor thanks to a 19-7 run in the last 6:54 minutes of play behind three players in double-figures.
 
Seattle U (12-7, 0-4 WAC) struck first to open the second stanza but it didn't go anywhere as both teams exchanged baskets before a 7-0 run for the Redhawks brought them within 57-39 before the Aggies answered with a 5-0 spurt to bring the lead back up to 62-39 on a step-back jumper from Mohamed Thiam with 12:45 left to play.
 
The Aggies continued to pile on to their lead the remainder of the game before closing out the night with an 87-60 victory to open the three-game road swing.
 
Chuha paced the Aggies with a team-high 13 points on 10 boards and 6-of-8 shooting for his fourth double-double of the season. Brown and Zamora each finished the night with 12 points apiece while Trevelin Queen nearly tallied a double-double with nine points and eight boards off the bench.
 
Last week's hero, Johnny McCants, wrapped up the night with nine points of his own on top of Clayton Henry scoring eight points on 3-of-3 shooting with five boards.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
NM State finished the game shooting 53.4-percent (31-of-58) from the floor and have now shot .500 or better five times this season...the Aggies have now hit 30-plus shots in a game in two of the last three contests.
 
UP NEXT
The Aggies remain on the road and head to the Beehive State for a 7 p.m. (MT) battle against Utah Valley on the WAC Digital Network on Saturday, Jan. 19.