Game Ten
NM State (7-2) at Loyola Marymount (6-3)
Saturday, Dec. 11 | 5:00 p.m. MT | Gersten Pavilion | Los Angeles, Calif.
Watch (WCC Network) | Listen | Live Stats | Tickets | NM State Game Notes | LMU Game Notes

THE OPENING TIP
• On the back end of a season-long four-game stretch of true road tilts, the NM State men's basketball team sets off on a journey to Los Angeles, Calif., to take on a West Coast Conference opponent for the first time since 2018. The tenth of 14 non-conference games on the Aggies' docket has NM State battling Loyola Marymount Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. inside Gersten Pavilion.
• Fans can catch each and every second of the action in the eighth all-time meeting between the Aggies and the Lions on the WCC Network. Jesse Kass and Jonathan Grace will narrate the action.
• Over the airwaves, legendary radio play-by-play man Jack Nixon will set up shop courtside to call the action.
• Nixon's play-by-play and analysis can be heard on 99.5 Zia Country FM in Las Cruces, N.M., and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.
• Affiliate stations of the Aggie Sports Network can be tuned in to in Artesia, N.M. (990 AM), Carlsbad, N.M. (1240 AM), Gallup, N.M. (94.9 FM), Alamogordo, N.M. (103.7 FM) and El Paso, Texas (1380 AM). All of those stations will also carry Nixon's commentary of Friday night's tilt.

FAST BREAK POINTS
• Saturday marks the Aggies' third true road game of the season and dating back to last season they have won four-straight road showdowns. Those four-straight road wins represent the nation's fifth-longest winning streak in true road games. Only Gonzaga (seven), West Virginia (six), Chattanooga (five) and NC State (five) have longer winning streaks in true road games than NM State.
• Under head coach Chris Jans, NM State has put up an enviable mark of 34-12 (.739) in true road games since his arrival ahead of the 2017-18 season.
• NM State is one of 39 teams in the nation who have not lost a true road game this season (of the teams who have played games of that configuration).
• The Aggies' seven wins are the 45th-most by all NCAA Division I men's basketball teams in the nation at the moment.
• Saturday's matchup with the Lions represents the 90th between the Aggies and a current member of the West Coast Conference (WCC). NM State is 57-32 (.640) in its program history against current WCC institutions.
• Now in his fifth season in charge of the Aggies, Chris Jans is going in search of his first victory over a WCC foe. Jans is 0-3 against WCC adversaries as the Aggies have dropped two games against Saint Mary's and one against San Diego in his tenure.
• As a program, the Aggies are gunning for their first win over a WCC opponent since Nov, 26, 2016. That day, NM State scored a 56-51 win at San Diego in the championship game of the University of San Diego Classic. Ian Baker (15 points), Jemerrio Jones (14 points) and Braxton Huggins (11 points) led the charge for NM State in that tilt.
• When going head-to-head against programs from the state of California, Jans owns a 13-7 (.650) all-time record.
• Jans' record in non-conference tilts against teams from the Golden State stands at 3-5 (.375).
• The greater Los Angeles are has not been a portion of the country where the Aggies have traditionally won. In road games at the four universities around Los Angeles (CSUN, Loyola
Marymount, UCLA and USC), NM State holds a 1-8 (.111) all-time record against those clubs. The Aggies' lone win in the City of Angels came on Nov. 18, 1994, when they took down USC by a 97-84 tally.
• NM State hasn't led wire-to-wire in a single game this season, but that hasn't stopped it from winning. Twice this season the Aggies have erased double-digit deficits to emerge as the victors.
• Each of the Aggies' last two games have been wins thanks to game-winning shots in the final 1.6 seconds of regulation. Jabari Rice canned a three-pointer with 1.6 seconds to go in order to lift NM State to a 72-69 win at UTEP (Friday, Dec. 3) while Nate Pryor's no-look layup at the horn in overtime pushed NM State to a 78-76 win at New Mexico.

THE STARTING LINE
• For the third time under head coach Chris Jans, NM State has gone 7-2 through its first nine games of the season. The Aggies previously started 7-2 in both 2017-18 and 2018-19 - seasons in which the Aggies won the WAC regular season title, the WAC Tournament title and appeared in the NCAA Tournament.
• Only 10 NM State teams before the 2021-22 edition have bettered this year's 7-2 start to a season. Seven NM State squads (the most recent in 1993-94) went 8-1 through their first nine games. Just three previous Aggie teams have won their first nine games to start a season (1920-21, 1925-26, 1968-69).
• The 2021-22 season marks the 22nd time in program history the Aggies have started a season by winning seven of their first nine games.

TEDDY BUCKETS BOARDER
• Yeah, yeah, yeah. Teddy Buckets. We know. Mr. Allen can put the orange thing in the orange thing with the best of them. It's Allen's rebounding acumen as of late, however, that has elevated his game to another level.
• Following a career-best 11 rebounds Monday night in the Aggies' overtime win at New Mexico, Allen tops the Aggies' rebounding charts at 6.7 per game - a figure which is ninth among all WAC student-athletes.
• Through his career at the NCAA Division I level, Allen has succeeded in hiking up his rebounding average with each passing season. He went from 2.7 boards per game in 2017-18 to 4.7 per outing through 2020-21 ahead of his average of 6.7 as of this writing.
• Allen has yanked down seven or more rebounds in six of the Aggies' nine games this season and has hauled in eight or more in each of his last three appearances.
• Allen has maintained his prolific scoring pace to go along with his newfound desire to crash the glass. His scoring average of 17.9 points per game leads the team, ranks fourth in the WAC and 73rd nationally as he seeks to become the first Aggie since Zach Lofton (20.1 ppg) in 2017-18 to average north of 13.2 points per game.

LAST TIME OUT | NM State 78 at New Mexico 76 (OT) | Monday, Dec. 6, 2021
• Tired: a Monday Night Football game featuring 32-straight rushing plays by the winning team like it was the 1960s. WIRED: a heated rivalry game which went to overtime and featured a no-look layup at the buzzer to win it.
• Playing significant minutes for the first time in his NM State career, junior guard Nate Pryor immortalized himself in NM State basketball history by throwing up a wild game-winning layup at the buzzer to lift the Aggies to a 78-76 triumph at New Mexico Monday night.
• In front of 13,019 fans - Pryor broke the hearts of New Mexico faithful around the nation and snapped the Aggies' three-game losing skid to their most bitter rivals, too.
• For the first time in his collegiate career, Teddy Allen registered a double-double. The scoring-oriented guard amassed a team-high 20 points on 10-of-21 shooting, but it was on the glass where he was the  most impressive. Allen corralled a game and career-high 11 rebounds to help lead NM State to victory.
• Though Pryor's game winner got its fair share of notoriety, forward Yuat Alok gave NM State a legitimate post presence all night. The Aukland, New Zealand, product poured in a career-high 19 points on a 9-of-13 performance from the field.
• With Alok on their side, NM State owned a massive 66-32 (+34) edge in points in the paint.
• Long range shooting wasn't a big-time weapon for either team in the tilt as the teams combined for just eight three-pointers. NM State went 2-of-15 from three-point range, matching its lowest long-range output since knocking down 2-of-18 from that distance in a non-conference home loss to St. Mary's back on Nov. 14, 2018.
• Free throws were somewhat of a rarity for the Aggies in Albuquerque, too, as NM State put in just two of its five tries on the night. The five free throw attempts matches a season-low for NM State while the two makes were the fewest in a single game for the program since going 2-for-4 in a home win over Northern New Mexico on Dec. 29, 2019.
• Saddled with his fourth foul with 9:13 remaining in regulation, senior forward Johnny McCants toed the line between fouling out and being an on-court contributor for the rest of the night. After reentering the game with 3:07 to go in regulation, McCants played the rest of the game masterfully and amassed six points, two rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot in the game's last eight minutes. For the entire game, McCants recorded 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot.
• Not only did Monday's triumph put the brakes on NM State's three-game skid against New Mexico, it pushed head coach Chris Jans' all-time record against the Lobos to 5-3 (.625). Jans also moved to 2-1 against the Lobos on their home court thanks to the win.
• NM State improved to 2-1 in overtime games under Jans with Monday night's win. The Aggies' overtime tilt was their first since the 2019-20 season. That year, NM State outscored Colorado State by a 78-70 tally in overtime in the team's opening game of the Cayman Islands Classic.

LAST TIME OUT vs. LOYOLA MARYMOUNT | NM State 102, LMU 62 | Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008
• A little over one year before they almost upset 12th-ranked Michigan State in the opening round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, many members of that NM State team helped the Aggies hammer Loyola Marymount by a 104-62 tally inside the Pan American Center.
• Jahmar Young led a trio of NM State players in double-figures by finishing with a game-high 30 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Young was especially lethal behind the three-point line, going 7-of-9 from that distance in the Aggies' lopsided win.
• Jonathan Gibson added 20 more on 6-of-9 shooting as NM State kept Loyola Marymount winless on the year.
• A 2020 US Bank/NM State Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, Wendell McKines finished with a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double in just 19 minutes of action.
• In all, the Aggies splashed 17 three-pointers during the rout including three of them from Las Cruces, N.M., product Gordo Castillo.
• Protecting the paint was the duo of Hamidu Rahman and Troy Gillenwater who amassed all eight of the Aggies' blocked shots in the win. Rahman swatted five shots to go along with six points, three rebounds and two of the Aggies' 23 assists.
• Eleven of the 12 Aggies who logged minutes put in points and 10 of them finished the game with at least one assist. Leading the way in the latter category was Hernst Laroche who finished with a game-high six.
• Young would go on to earn the first of his two All-WAC First Team citations a few months later and the 2008-09 version of the Aggies finished the campaign with a 17-16 record. That included a 9-7 showing in WAC contests.

SCOUTING LOYOLA MARYMOUNT | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Back inside Gersten Pavilion for the only time in the month of December, the Lions are hoping to secure their second all-time win over the Aggies inside the facility. Loyola Marymount is coming off a 60-55 victory at Tulsa Tuesday night and is seeking its third-straight victory Saturday afternoon.
• On the interior, fifth-year player Eli Scott shoulders most of the load. The Lions' leading scorer (16.7 ppg) and rebounder (7.1 rpg), Scott has accumulated a trio of double-doubles already this season and ranks second in the West Coast Conference in that category.
• Few in the WCC and the nation have a better shooting touch than the Lions' guard/forward out of Chino Hills, Calif. Scott's field goal percentage of .553 is the 69th-best in the country while his 57 total field goals made ranks fourth in the WCC and 90th in the land.
• With Scott controlling things down low, that has freed up Joe Quintana on the outside who has maintained his reputation as one of the most lethal shooters not only in the WCC but in the NCAA Division I basketball landscape as well. Pouring in points at a rate of 16.2 per game, Quintana has been responsible for hitting 32 of the Lions' 67 three-pointers (47.8-percent).
• Those 32 makes from long range represent the 14th-highest total of any NCAA Division I player at the moment while his 70 tries from that distance top the WCC and stand as the 31st-most in the country.
• Going along with his excellent three-point shooting percentage of .457 (33rd nationally), Quintana has been nearly perfect from the free throw line this season. His percentage at the charity stripe this season sits at .968 - the fourth-highest in the nation.

THIS DATE IN NM STATE HISTORY
• Nearly a full decade has passed since the Aggies played a game on Dec. 11. NM State's most recent game on this date came in 2013 when the Aggies faced a tall task in a 74-48 loss at top-ranked Arizona.
• The Aggies have lost their last three games on this date. NM State's most recent win on Dec. 11 came in 2008 when they took down Sacramento State by a 76-65 tally inside the Pan American Center.
• Saturday marks the third time in program history the Aggies play a foe from California on this date and their second matchup against a WCC foe on Dec. 11. In 1957, NM State scored a 76-74 victory over Pacific in Las Cruces, N.M.

COMING UP NEXT
• There is just one test for NM State against a Power Five opponent during the 2021-22 campaign and that is set to occur Wednesday night in Pullman, Wash., when the Aggies take on Pac-12 adversary Washington State. Tip-off inside Beasley Coliseum is set for 8:00 p.m. MT.

++NM State++