NMSU loses at home to UTAH State

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) – Brockeith Pane scored 12 points, including two free throws with 14.4 seconds to play, and No. 25 Utah State beat New Mexico State 58-54 on Wednesday night. Tai Wesley scored 11 points and Nate Bendall and Tyler Newbold each added 10 for Utah State (27-3, 14-1 Western Athletic Conference), which shot 61.9 percent from the field in the second half. Troy Gillenwater had 17 points for New Mexico State (14-16, 8-7), while Tshilidzi Nephawe and Hernst Laroche both scored 10. Trailing by six points at halftime and by nine with 15:57 left, New Mexico State outscored Utah State 19-5 to take a five-point lead with 7:33 to play. Utah State scored on its next six possessions to go up 51-49 on Pane’s jumper with 3:15 left. After Gillenwater missed the front end of a 1-and-1, Wesley scored inside and Newbold hit a 3-pointer to put Utah State up 56-49 with 2:14 to play. New Mexico State closed within two with 21.7 seconds left, but Pane converted a 1-and-1 with 14.4 seconds left to make it 58-54. Pane’s free throws came after Wesley and Morgan Grim both missed the front end of 1-and-1s. Utah State, which was 3 for 11 from 3-point range for the game, missed all six 3-point attempts in the first half but still led by six points after New Mexico State had eight turnovers and just nine field goals. New Mexico State shot 52.4 percent in the second half to finish at 44.4 percent for the game. Utah State finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field and had a 24-8 advantage in the paint. Neither team shot the ball well in the first 20 minutes which ended with Utah State leading 27-21. New Mexico State missed seven of its first 10 shots from the field, while Utah State missed nine of its first 12.