New Mexico State Struggles but Beats Long Beach, 67-51

Had they not been so tired from playing their third game in six days, the New Mexico State Aggies might have run Cal State Long Beach right out of the Pan American Center in the first 20 minutes of their Big West Conference game Saturday night.

But some sloppy ball-handling by the Aggies postponed the inevitable. New Mexico State won its seventh consecutive game, 67-51.

The Aggies committed 24 turnovers before 10,239, one of which was not Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg. He missed the game after he doctors said he hadchicken pox.

Greenberg didn’t miss much. The 49ers (8-5, 2-2) shot slightly more than 30% for the second consecutive game. Long Beach made only seven of 25 three-point attempts.

Still, New Mexico State struggled. “We missed a lot of opportunities on the break that we would normally convert,” New Mexico State guard Sam Crawford, from Moorpark College via Westchester High, said. “We’re human, and after playing three games in five or six days, we get tired. When we get tired, we make mistakes.”

The Aggies (11-1, 3-0) defeated New Mexico and UC Santa Barbara earlier in the week and appears to be the only clear-cut challenge to Nevada Las Vegas for the Big West regular season title.

New Mexico State held forward Lucious Harris to nine points.

Crawford, the nation’s assist leader, finished with nine. But another half dozen of his passes should have led to baskets but were dropped out of bounds by his teammates.

After taking a 14-10 lead 5 1/2 minutes into the game, the 49ers were outscored, 22-6, over the next 13 minutes, during which they hit one of 14 shots from the field.