LAS CRUCES, N.M. – After putting together back-to-back wins, NM State (3-7) would suffer an 83-66 defeat on Tuesday evening at the Pan American Center. Despite a strong 22-point effort from senior Lucía Yenes that helped the Aggies stay within striking distance in the first half, the Anteater offense used 13 triples and a 92% clip from the free throw line to ultimately pull away over the final 20 minutes.

Fueled by a pair of early paint buckets by Lucia Yenes, the Aggies jumped out to a 6-1 advantage less than three minutes into the contest. Eventually, NM State's lead would grow to seven points (10-3) before UC Irvine (10-2, 2-0 Big West) responded with a pair of threes to trim the lead to one with 5:29 remaining in the opening frame. 

Yenes would continue to fill up the stat sheet in the first quarter as she closed out the period with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting while adding a pair of rebounds, an assist and a steal during the first 10 minutes of action. The senior's impact would lift the Aggies to an 18-17 advantage at the conclusion of the first quarter.

A back-and-forth start to the second quarter would leave the two sides tied at 26 with 6:39 left in the first half. However, UCI would outscore the Aggies 15-6 over the remainder of the period to take a 41-32 lead into the locker room.

After forcing a shot clock violation on the Anteaters' opening possession in the second half, Loes Rozing would connect on a three-point attempt to trim the deficit to six points. Although this would be the closest the Aggies would get for the remainder of the night, as UCI responded with a three of its own to start a 7-1 run that put the visitors ahead by 12 with 7:42 left in the quarter. Later, the Aggies would rattle off an 8-3 scoring run that included six free throws, but the Anteaters would finish the period with five unanswered points to take a 63-48 lead into the final 10 minutes.

In the fourth quarter, the Aggies saw 12 of their 18 points come from beyond the arc, including the first three triples coming from Anna Csenyi, who finished the game with four makes from the outside. Despite the success from deep, NM State would be unable to close the gap as UC Irvine would open the frame on an 11-3 run and would ultimately drain four threes of its own in the quarter to lead to an 83-66 defeat for the Crimson and White.

QUOTABLES
Head Coach Jody Adams, on the team's performance against UC Irvine: "We played well for three quarters, and did a good job against their press defense and the zone looks they threw at us. I believe we can guard the perimeter and scoring threats better than we showed on the floor tonight. 

While it was not the result we wanted, I can see the improvement each game, we just need to keep growing."

NUMBERS OF NOTE   

• With the loss, the Aggies drop to 2-2 on their home floor.
• NM State finished the night with six made threes to equal their most makes in a single game this season. They also closed the game at 40% from deep to mark their best 3-point shooting clip this year.
• Lucía Yenes' 22-point effort marks the third time she has scored more than 20 points this season and marks the fourth time that an Aggie has scored 20 or more this season. This also marked the seventh time this season that Yenes paced all Aggies in scoring.
• With four 3-pointers, Anna Csenyi put in a new career-best from beyond the arc, while also notching the most made threes by an Aggie in a single game this year. Her 12 points also matches a career high.
• Morane Dossou converted on a career-best five free throws.
• In all, NM State finished 14-for-19 from the charity stripe, their most makes from the free-throw line since putting in 17 against New Mexico Highlands on Nov. 11. 
• For the second straight game and third time this season, NM State finished below the 20-turnover mark, finishing with 19 - tied with UCI, who came in averaging just 13 giveaways per contest. 
• The Aggies took full advantage of the Anteater errors, converting the 19 turnovers into 22 points, compared to just eight for UCI. 

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