Aggies Come Up Short at Boise State
BOISE, Idaho (Dec. 11) – The New Mexico State women’s basketball team fell 72-57 to Boise State inside the Broncos’ Taco Bell Arena Sunday afternoon.
Senior forward Kelsie Rozendaal posted a career-high 11 points in the game and classmate Tabytha Wampler scored a season high 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to post her fourth double-double of the season, 13th of her career. But it was not enough, as Boise State used 16-6 run midway through the second half to take control of the game after a tight first 30 minutes.
NM State shot 35.5 percent (22-62) from the floor and held the Broncos to 42.4 percent (25-59). BSU made eight treys while NM State made one from behind the arc. The Aggies out-rebounded BSU 44-31 but turned the ball over 18 times while the Broncos made 11 errors.
NM State dropped its eighth straight contest to fall to 1-8 and Boise State moved to 6-4 this season.
“We had good shots, but we just turned the ball over too much,” said head coach Mark Trakh. “We are getting better, we’re close, we just need to continue to execute better on the floor.”
Boise State’s Heather Pilcher opened the scoring with a three to give the Broncos an early 3-0 lead. Buckets by Wampler and Camila Rosen gave NM State its first of the game. Pilcher scored BSU’s first eight points of the game as the home team led 8-7 at the first media timeout.
Wampler scored seven of the Aggies’ first 11 points as the teams were knotted at 11-11 with 12:28 left in the half. A bank shot by Wampler tied it again at 13-all midway through the stanza.
NM State kept the lead away from Boise State over the next six minutes as part of a 9-2 run. A controversial call on a traditional three-point play by Jasmine Rutledge pushed the NM State to its largest of the half at 20-15 at the 5:32 mark.
BSU guard Kati Isham closed the Aggie margin to one at 20-19 after making good on a four-point play. Isham scored via a traditional three-point play on the next Bronco possession to put Boise State up 22-20 with 2:35 remaining in the first.
NM State scored five straight to move ahead 25-22 on the scoreboard with just over a minute left in the half. But Boise State scored the final five of the half to take a 27-25 lead into the locker rooms.
The Aggies dominated the boards in the first 20 minutes, 26-16, including a 17 on the defensive end. NM State committed nine first-half turnovers while forcing six BSU miscues. The Aggies shot 34.4 percent (11-32) from the field compared to 27.6 percent (8-29) for the Broncos. NM State scored 10 points in the paint in the first half while BSU posted four in the lane.
Rutledge opened the second stanza with another three-point play to put NM State up 28-27. A pair of free throws from senior Kaitlyn Soto increased the Aggie lead to 30-27.
The Broncos answered with an 11-0 run to take control at 38-30 with 16:07 left.
Rozendaal and Wampler teamed up to narrow the BSU lead to 40-37 at the 13:06 mark. But Boise State put together a 16-6 rally over the next four minutes to move ahead 56-43 with just over eight minutes to play. Boise State maintained its double-digit lead the rest of the way en route to snapping a four-game losing streak to the Aggies.
Isham led Boise State with 18 points and forward Kinzi Poteet added 15 and grabbed a team-high seven boards. Senior forward Nicole Brady also hauled in seven rebounds.
NM State returns home next Monday, Dec. 19 as the second game of a doubleheader with the men’s team. The Aggies tip against UC Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pan American Center.
