WBB Recap(s): Aggies Still Marred By Injury Woes, Losing Streak

New Mexico 58, Utah State 33

Utah State is on the brink. With their 10th loss in a row, a 58-33 defeat at New Mexico, the Aggies fell to 6-15 (2-10) for the year.

Expecting to win at the Pit is not a luxury many teams can afford, but when the season started, the Aggies certainly didn’t expect to be nine games back from .500 with only two conference wins after their trip.

After posting zero points and four rebounds in her previous outing, Sophie Sene scored 12 points, four rebounds, two steals and three blocks. Aaliyah Gayles, after posting a career high, took a step back, and Jamisyn Heaton, who finally returned to the lineup after sustaining a concussion and a broken nose, looked... well, like she had just returned to the lineup after sustaining a concussion and a broken nose.

Gayles and Heaton each had four points, Karyn Sanford matched with another four, and Elise Livingston was held scoreless. In total, the starting five combined for 24 points – 12 from Sene and 12 from the others. The bench only added nine points, Paloma Muñoz Herreros leading the way with three, and three Aggies with two. This left the Aggies with just 33 points, their worst offensive performance of the Wes Brooks era. The last time the Aggies were held to a tally this low was when they lost 86-32 to a 24th-ranked UNLV juggernaut on Feb. 23, 2023.

Unsurprisingly for a 58-33 blowout, the Lobos were in control wire to wire. The Aggies got on the board first when Sene hit the opening bucket, but before long they were down 9-2. Muñoz Herreros hit a three to make it 9-5, but the Lobos weren’t slowing down. They added four more before the Aggies scored again with two free throws from Sene to bring the score to 13-7, but the Aggies stopped there for the quarter and New Mexico took a 12-point lead by the end of the frame.

The second quarter was Utah State’s best for scoring, and the only one in which the Aggies recorded double-digit points. They had 11, but couldn’t keep up with New Mexico’s 17, trailing 36-18 at the halftime break. That second period may have been their highest scoring, but the third was their most effective of the game as the Aggies managed to shave five points off the Lobo lead.

In the opening minutes of the stanza, the Aggies saw a layup from Heaton and two from Sene. The Lobos broke up the Aggie run with back-to-back buckets in the paint, but then they were done for the quarter. The Aggies went on to add one free throw and more field goal and they called it good for the quarter too. It was far from an offensive showcase as the Aggies won the frame 9-4 to make it a 40-27 game heading into the final 10 minutes.

In the fourth, the Lobos shook off the offensive woes much better than the Aggies did. Utah State had its lowest-scoring quarter of the game, hitting just three field goals for six points, while the Lobos took off and added another 18 points, three more than Utah State’s entire second half. They didn’t need any of these points, or, as it turns out, the measly four points they added the quarter before. New Mexico scored 36 points in the first half, beating Utah State’s final score by three.

The leading scorer for each team had 12 points as Cacia Antonio’s tally matched Sene’s. Antonio added three rebounds, two steals and a block, and she got plenty of help. Destinee Hooks added nine points, three rebounds and a steal. Jessie Joaquim had four points and 12 rebounds, Joana Magalhaes had six points, four rebounds, an assist and two steals, and Alyssa Hargrove had two points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal. Nayli Padilla came off the bench and added 10 points, three rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks. A pair of Lobos, Emma Najjuma and Laila Abdurraqib, each added six points with Najjuma pulling down nine rebounds as well.

It was always going to be a difficult test to go to the Pit and play New Mexico, but Utah State’s path to this game has been a brutal one, and the Aggies arrived in Albuquerque battered. This was the fifth game back for Gayles, and she’s already been in three different starting lineups. This lineup was the same as the one she returned to, and the first time that starting five has shared the court since Heaton broke her nose a minute into Gayles’ return. The hand the Aggies have been dealt isn’t a fair one, but it’s not changing anytime soon, and with only eight more games left, they are running out of time to make something of it.

Air Force 73, Utah State 50

Utah State’s job just got a lot harder.

With a loss to Air Force, the Aggies have dropped 10 in a row and are in sole possession of 11th place – exactly where they were picked to finish in the Mountain West ahead of the season.

It was that prediction that caused Brooks to publicly promise that his team would not finish 11th. He had no way of knowing then what the Aggies would go through on the injury front, their rotation devastated by attrition from late December on.

The Aggies had a chance to force a three-team logjam at the three conference win mark among them, the Falcons, and the Nevada Wolf Pack. Instead, they are now alone with only the one-win Spartans behind. In the 73-50 loss, the Aggies fell to 6-16 (2-11) and the Falcons climbed to 10-12 (4-8).

It was a high-stakes game with big implications for the order of finish in a few weeks, and for a quarter, the Aggies did exactly what they needed to do. Heaton hit a three to start the game, and Livingston canned another to take an 11-7 lead as part of a collective 3-of-6 shooting performance from deep in the first frame. Livingston connected again to make it a 14-11 Aggie edge later in the period, and Sanford added five points on two interior buckets, turning one of them into a three-point play at the line.

After winning the first quarter 14-12, Utah State’s offensive execution stalled. Two free throws from Emily Adams tied the game, then a jumper put the Falcons in front. Adams added an insurance bucket before Livingston responded with a layup of her own, but the ensuing two-point deficit was the closest the Aggies would get.

Nearing the end of the half, the Falcons had assembled an 11-1 run when Bella Cosme connected from deep to cut Air Force’s lead to nine points. She had something to say after the shot, and whatever it was earned her a technical foul. Milahnie Perry failed to make Cosme and the Aggies pay for it as she missed both free throws, but Jayda McNabb hit a buzzer-beater to take a 12-point lead at the half, 32-20.

After the half, the Aggies went inside to pick up their offense. They got just three looks from beyond the arc and none of them made it home. Going 6-of-13 shooting without an offensive rebound, the Aggies put up 15 points in the quarter but ended up down by 20 when Air Force didn’t slow down on offense and scored 23. Part of Air Force’s offensive production was another 4-of-5 three-point shooting quarter, matching what it did in the second quarter for a total of 8-of-10 in the middle quarters.

The Aggies let Adams get loose for a career-high 23 points. She has been turning upwards lately but exploded against Utah State. She added an assist, a steal and a block. Perry added 19 points with a 3-of-5 showing from behind the three-point line, five rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block. McNabb had seven points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals. After a hat trick in the first and Cosme’s hit in the second, the Aggies wouldn’t find the net from downtown again and ended the night with a 4-of-17 output.

Utah State added another 15 points in the fourth and Air Force added 18 to add modestly to its impressive lead.

Livingston only got two shots off and didn’t score against New Mexico, but she led the team against Air Force with 12 points, her best output since hosting Boise State on Jan. 17. She added two rebounds, an assist and a steal. Sanford hit double digits for the fourth time in five games with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. She picked up one foul, her first since the Boise State game. She has played 30 or more minutes in each contest save for a 29-minute game against New Mexico.  

Gayles led the team in both rebounds and assists with a line of five points, seven rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block without a foul in 30 minutes of play. Her efficiency has taken a dip – she’s 2-for-17 from the field, 0-for-7 from deep and 5-for-9 from the line in the past two games. Heaton ended the night with five points, five rebounds and an assist.

Macie Brown notched a season high with eight points and four rebounds in 20 minutes of work off the bench. Andjela Marojevic had four points and a rebound and Cosme had three points and a rebound. After returning from a shoulder injury for two games, Sophie Sene was once again sidelined (shoulder) and the Aggies were without her 9.2 points and team-high 6.3 rebounds per game. Air Force won the battle on the boards by nine, 42-33, including 14 offensive rebounds to Utah State's seven.