NMSU heads to Seattle

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The defending undisputed Western Athletic Conference Champion and four-consecutive WAC Tournament Champion NM State Aggies (11-8, 3-1) start their WAC Pacific road swing by visiting Seattle (7-10, 1-2) on Thursday for an 8 p.m. tipoff at KeyArena. The Aggies are coming off Saturday’s 80-62 triumph over Chicago State, while the Redhawks lost at home to CSU Bakersfield 79-52,

SERIES RECORD: This is the 11th meeting between the Aggies and Seattle U, with NM state holding a 8-2 series lead. The Aggies won two of the three meetings in 2015, with Seattle winning 58-52 in the Emerald City on Jan. 17, 2015. NM State won 73-47 in Las Cruces on Feb. 12, 2015 and 80-61 in the WAC Championship game in Las Vegas on March 14, 2015. The Aggies and Redhawks are tied 2-2 in games in Seattle, while NM State has a 4-0 lead in Las Cruces and a 2-0 advantage in Las Vegas.

MEDIA COVERAGE: Saturday’s game can be heard live on the Aggie Sports Network and over the Las Cruces radio airwaves on KWML, 570AM with NM State Hall of Famer Jack Nixon on the call.

The game will be not be televised, but will be available on a free video webstream at www.GoSeattleU.com.

LIVE STATS ON THE WEB: Live stats are available for most games at www.nmstatesports.com at no cost all season long.

ABOUT THE AGGIES: NM State has won four straight at home with the 80-62 win over Chicago State since dropping a second game at home this season with the 62-59 loss to Wyoming. NM State had its 11-game winning streak at the Pan American Center was snapped with the 83-74 loss to New Mexico on Nov. 15 and had won four more before the loss to the Cowboys. Since the start of the 2012-13 season, the Aggies sport a 53-6 record at the Pan Am (.898).

In the last 66 contests played by NM State at the Pan Am, the Aggies are 60-6 (.909).

NM State has won 30 straight Western Athletic Conference games at the Pan American Center. That doesn’t include a non-conference win over current member Bakersfield prior to joining the league.

The Aggies 14-game winning streak against WAC opponents dating back to the 2014-15 campaign was snapped with the loss 79-75 loss at Grand Canyon. The streak dated back to an 85-63 win over GCU on Jan. 22, 2015.

NM State fell behind No. 23/22 Baylor 18-2 in the first six minutes of that game. The Aggies outscored Bears 68-67 over the next 36 minutes of the game.

NM State’s 73-53 win at UTEP was the largest margin of victory over the Miners in El Paso since a 61-38 triumph on Dec. 30, 1974 and was the largest win margin ever at the Don Haskins Center.

Aggie sophomore Pascal Siakam is one of the 31 players on the Lou Henson Award mid-season watch list. The award named after the Aggie coaching legend is presented to the top player from a mid-major institution by College Insider.

Siakam has three 30-point games this season with career-highs of 35 points against Robert Morris and Oral Roberts, and 30 points against Tennessee Tech. He is the first Aggie to post multiple 30-point games in the same season since Troy Gillenwater had four in 2010-11.

Siakam tallied the first 20-20 game in 13 seasons for the Aggies with his 24 points and 23 rebounds in a win over UTEP on Dec. 2. It’s the most rebounds for an Aggie since Chris Jackson’s 23 at North Texas on Feb. 1, 2003.

Siakam was named the WAC Player of the Week the first three weeks of this season and added a fourth this season. He leads the nation in field goals made (168) and double-doubles (17), is sixth nationally rebounding (11.9 rpg) and 12th in scoring (22.2 ppg). He’s 33rd in blocked shots (2.16) and 48th in minutes played (35.11). He leads the WAC in all six categories as well.

Siakam has not double-doubled only twice this season, both times against New Mexico. He had 23 points and eight rebounds on Nov. 15, with 21 points and four boards on Dec. 16.

Junior Ian Baker bounced back from being clobbered out of the UNM game with a career-high 26 point game at UTEP. He led the Aggie barrage from the 3-point arc, scoring a career-best six and hitting 6-of-7 from long range. He added 21 points at Baylor.

Baker was selected a Preseason All-WAC First Team by both the coaches and media. Currently, he is fourth in the WAC in scoring (14.9 ppg), fifth in 3-point field goals (2.42 pg) and seventh in assists (3.89 apg).

The Aggies posted a 23-11 campaign in 2014-15 that included a 13-1 WAC record and the outright regular season championship. They won a record fourth consecutive WAC Tournament. No other program in the history of the Western Athletic Conference has ever won more than two straight tournaments.

The Aggies are also coming off appearing in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and five in the last six seasons. The Ags are aiming to match the school record of five straight appearances set first from 1967-to-1971 under Lou Henson and then again from 1990-to-1994 under Neil McCarthy.

Of the 14 players on the NM State roster, nine are from countries other than the United States. Four players are from Toronto, Canada, with two from France, one from Cameroon, one from Colombia, and one from Mexico.

MENZIES MARKS: In his ninth season at New Mexico State, head coach Marvin Menzies is the Dean of WAC Coaches. Menzies is writing himself into the annals of NM State history. With a record of 186-108, Menzies is third on the all-time win list for NM State Coaches. He’s reached the 175 win mark faster than the two men in front of him on the win list: Hall of Famer Lou Henson and Neil McCarthy. Henson (1966-75, 1997-2005) leads the group with 289 wins on the Aggie bench (289-152, 16 years). McCarthy (1985-97) has 229 victories (229-114, 12 years). He passed UNM’s Bob King (1962-72) for ninth on the WAC all-games win list at 176 with the win over Houston Baptist. He’s now eighth on the win list for WAC only games with 93 and equaling Gary Colson at UNM and Fresno State (1980-94). He is third in WAC only winning percentage at .715 in front of the late Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State (1995-2002). Even with all the winning, Menzies collected his first Don Haskins WAC Coach of the Year Award last year when the Aggies won the regular season by five games. Menzies was named one of Forbes’ top 25 college coaches for the money in November 2014.

SUPER SOPHOMORE SIAKAM: Sophomore Pascal Siakam continues making a national name for himself with his strong play and was one of 31 players named to the midseason watch list for the Lou Henson Award recognizing the top mid-major player of the year. Selected the WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the media, Siakam leads the nation in field goals made (168) and double-doubles (17), is sixth in rebounding (11.9 rpg), 12th in scoring (22.2 ppg), 33rd in blocked shots (2.16) and 58th in minutes played (35.11), leading the WAC in all. He is the leading scorer of the 23 NCAA Division I players averaging a double-double (as of Monday) by 2.2 points a game. Siakam also has three of the top four scoring games in the WAC this year. The 6-9 forward from Douala, Cameroon, scored a 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds with three blocks against Chicago State for his 17th double-double of the season and 24rd of his career. He notched a career-high six assists at UC Irvine. He was named the WAC Player of the Week for the fourth time this season on Dec. 28, becoming just the fourth player to do so in WAC history (Paul Millsap, Louisiana Tech and Nick Fazekas, Nevada in 2005-06, and Daniel Mullings, NM State in 2013-14). Siakam matched his career-high in scoring against Oral Roberts collecting 35 points with 11 rebounds, then collected 26 points at Baylor with 10 rebounds. He previously dropped 35 points on Robert Morris to go with 13 rebounds. He followed it with 26 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high six blocked shots at Air Force. The 35 points are the most since Justin Hawkins scored 37 against Hawaii at the Pan Am on March 8, 2008. With his 30 points against Tennessee Tech, Siakam has three 30-point games this season and is the first Aggie to post multiple 30-point games in a season since Troy Gillenwater had four in 2010-11. Siakam became the first Aggie to post a 20-rebound game in 13 years when he recorded the program’s 10th 20-20 game with a 24-point, 23-rebound game against UTEP. Chris Jackson had the last of both on Feb. 1, 2003 when he posted 20 points and 23 boards at North Texas. The 23 boards are tied for the seventh most in a game in program history and are the most in NCAA Division I this season. They were also the most in the WAC since Paul Millsap of Louisiana Tech had 28 against San Jose State on Feb. 15, 2006. Siakam became the first person ever to be selected as the WAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week in three consecutive weeks with his selection in the first three weeks. There have been 14 back-to-back Men’s Players of the Week in the WAC (including Siakam), and the closest to three straight were three in four weeks done by San Diego State’s Michael Cage in 1983-84 and NM State’s Daniel Mullings in 2013-14. The league’s Freshman of the Year in 2014-15, Siakam was a first team All-WAC selection as a freshman and was honored as a first team NABC All-District VII performer last season. In just about a season and a half (53 games), he has 858 career points and 488 career rebounds. He also has 102 career blocked shots to rank seventh on the Aggie career list, passing Aggie Hall of Famer Johnny Roberson (1986-89) in eighth with 98. He needs 14 to reach Charles Goza (1995-99) in sixth with 116.

THIS BAKER DELIVERS: Junior Ian Baker is a tough and vital leader for the Aggies. The second leading scorer on the team and fourth in the WAC, the 6-0 guard from Washington, D.C., is averaging 14.9 points a contest. His worth to the team was proven at New Mexico when he went down in the 10th minute at New Mexico after running head-first into a blind screen and couldn’t return in the Aggies 79-61 loss. He was cleared to play three days later, the morning of the game at UTEP, and turned in a career performance with 26 points, including going 6-of-7 from the 3-point arc. He followed that with his fourth 20-point game of the season with 21 points at Baylor. Baker’s third in the WAC in free throw shooting, hitting 84.7 percent from the line (50-of-59). He’s fifth in the league in 3-pointers per game (2.42), seventh in assists (3.89) and eighth in 3-point percentage (.383, 46-of-120). He scored 22 points in the first UTEP game and 20 vs. Wyoming after picking up 17 points at Air Force with a career-high eight rebounds. Baker also popped for 19 points in consecutive games against New Mexico and Tennessee Tech. The elder statesman of the team, Baker was named Preseason First Team All-WAC by both the coaches and the media.

WARMIN’ UP WILKINS: Sophomore Johnathon Wilkins has stepped up his play over the last month. The 6-10, 225 pound forward scored a career-high 13 points against Chicago State after his 12 points vs. Missouri-Kansas City that matched his scoring against Oral Roberts and Arizona Christian. He also added 10 at Grand Canyon. He grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in the loss to Wyoming and nearly had a double-double with eight points as well. At UNM, Wilkins had eight points with a career-high three assists. After missing the first four games due to an administrative error, Wilkins has moved into the starting lineup and is averaging 7.1 points and 3.9 rebounds a game. Wilkins played in all 34 games last season, starting 10 as a redshirt freshman.

HERE’S SIDY: Redshirt freshman Sidy Ndir has played well the last four games. The 6-2, 180 pound guard from Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, France has come off the bench with his best games of the season. At Utah Valley, Ndir had a career-high 14 points with a career-high five rebounds and a steal, then at Grand Canyon he equaled his 14 points, going 4-of-6 from the floor, 2-2 from the 3-point arc. Against UMKC he scored nine points with four boards and two blocked shots, and followed with 10 points and three boards vs. Chicago State. He’s raised his season average to 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds and 7assists a game.

A SHINY PENNIE: Sophomore Jalyn Pennie had one of his best all-around games at UC Irvine. The 6-7, 180 pound forward from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, hit 4-of-9 3-pointers against the Anteaters, scoring 12 points and grabbing eight rebounds with an assist. It nearly mirrored his game at UTEP when he scored 14 points with eight boards and a blocked shot. Pennie grabbed nine boards at Air Force and repeated the nine boards at Utah Valley. He also had three blocked shots at New Mexico and against Chicago State. A starter in the last 10 games, Pennie is averaging 5.8 points with 5.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and is 10th in the WAC with 0.58 blocked shots.

TALENTED TAYLOR: Sophomore Matt Taylor has stepped up his workmanlike play for the Aggies. The 6-5 guard from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is averaging 5.5 points a contest, with 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for NM State. He’s also got 11 blocks on the season, and is 10th in the WAC averaging 0.58 per game. Taylor scored a career-high 13 points against Chicago State to go with eight rebounds. He scored nine points at UTEP and collected a career-high eight assists in El Paso on Dec. 19. It was the second time this season Taylor had nine against the Miners when he pulled down a career-high nine rebounds on Dec. 2. He also posted nine at Grand Canyon. In his first starting season, he is one of three Aggies who have starts in all 19 games.

HENSON INDUCTED: Aggie Legend Lou Henson was officially inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 20 as part of a class of eight individuals, including three coaches, who formed the NCB Class of 2015 at the College Basketball Experience in Kansas City, Mo. Henson had a 41-year career as a collegiate head coach, all at the NCAA Division I level, posting a record of 779-412 with a 65.4 winning percentage. He’s the all-time winningest coach at both New Mexico State and Illinois, and started his career at Hardin-Simmons. Henson, a 1955 graduate of NM State, coached 16 years in two stints for his alma mater, posting a 289-152 record. He also tallied a 423-224 mark in 21 years at Illinois and amassed a 67-36 record in four seasons at HSU. He is currently 11th all-time in career Division I victories, and was sixth on that list when he fully retired from the floor in January of 2005. Henson is one of only 12 coaches to take two different schools to the Final Four.

THE FAVORITE: New Mexico State is the prohibitive favorite to win the Western Athletic Conference by both the league’s coaches and the media. The media went on to name sophomore forward Pascal Siakam as the league’s preseason player of the year.

The Aggies received seven of the eight first place votes and 49 points from the coaches, the most they could receive since they couldn’t vote for their own team or players. Grand Canyon was second with 39 points and CSU Bakersfield third with 36 and the other first place vote.

The media, with no voting restrictions, picked up 13 of the 14 first place votes and was third on the ballot that gave CSU Bakersfield a first place vote for a total of 110 points.

The media gave Grand Canyon second with 88 and Missouri-Kansas City third with 87.

Siakam and junior guard Ian Baker were the Aggies selected on both the Coaches and Media’s Preseason All-WAC first team. Siakam was the media’s preseason player of the year, while UMKC’s Martez Harrison was the coaches preseason player of the year.

AGGIES 11TH WAC SEASON: The 2015-16 season marks the 11th year of competition for NM State in the Western Athletic Conference, and it has been a successful combination for the Aggies in men’s basketball. The Aggies won the regular season WAC Championship twice (2008 shared, 2015 outright) and the WAC Tournament Championship five times. Those five have come in the last six seasons, including the last four straight. Additionally in the 10 previous seasons, the Aggies have four second place finishes and three thirds. NM State was fourth in its first WAC season (2006). Since joining the WAC, the Aggies have a record of 114-48 (.704).

LOOKING BACK: The New Mexico State Aggies needed a couple of minutes to figure out the Chicago State trapping defense before they went on first half runs of 8-2 and 10-0 on the way to posting an 80-62 romp over the Cougars. The win extended the Aggies WAC homecourt winning streak to 30 games.

Pascal Siakam led NM State with his NCAA-leading 17th double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds to go with three blocked shots. Johnathon Wilkins and Matt Taylor had career-highs with 13 and 11 points respectively, while Sidy Ndir came off the bench with 10 points. Taylor and Jalyn Pennie joined Siakam with three blocks each.

The Aggies, who played everyone, shot 47.5 percent from the floor, and held CSU to 31.9 percent. The Aggies out rebounded the Cougars 53-37, but had 12 turnovers to the Coogs nine.

ABOUT THE REDHAWKS: Seattle U is 7-10 on the season, 1-2 in WAC play, after losing to CSU Bakersfield 79-52 last Saturday at KeyArena. The Redhawks are led by guard Brendan Westendorf (6-5, Jr., Kent, Wash.) with 11.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game. Guard Manroop Clair (6-2, Jr., Vancouver, B.C., Canada) adds 10.4 points, 1.6 boards and 2.9 3-pointers a contest. Center Jack Crook (6-11, Sr., Manchester, England) averages 10.0 points, 6.1 boards and 0.5 blocks, while forward William Powell (6-6, Jr., Huntsville, Ala.) averages 8.8 points and leads the team with 6.2 rebounds with 2.6 assists an outing. Seattle U is scoring 66.3 points a game, and allowing 67.8 per contest.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Aggies visit WAC co-leader CSU Bakersfield Saturday on the blue floor of the Icardo Center.

The Roadrunners are 13-5 overall on the season, 3-0 in WAC play, after crushing Seattle U 79-52 last Saturday night. CSUB hosts UT Rio Grande Valley on Thursday before welcoming NM State on Saturday. The ‘Runners are led by center Aly Ahmed (6-9, Sr., Alexandria, Egypt) with 14.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game. Guard Damiyne Durham (6-4, Fr., Oakwood, Texas) adds 12.8 points, 3.3 boards and a WAC leading 3.1 3-pointers a contest. Forward Kevin Mays (6-4, Sr., Queens, N.Y.) averages 12.3 points and leads the team with 8.1 boards, while guard Dedrick Basile (5-10, Jr., Houston, Texas) averages 11.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.8 steals an outing. CSUB is scoring 72.7 points a game, and allowing 64.3 per contest.