New Mexico St. Makes Free Throws to Advance : West: Aggies come back against Southwestern Louisiana, 81-73. UCLA is next at Albuquerque.

New Mexico State overcame a five-point second-half deficit, made all 16 of its free throws in the last 2:50 and defeated Southwestern Louisiana, 81-73, Sunday during the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The game turned in the Aggies’ favor after Coach Marty Fletcher of Southwestern Louisiana called a timeout with 5:59 to play.

Aggie center Chris Hickman, who scored 18 points and made all 12 of his free throws, used the timeout to deliver a message.

“As a senior, I told the team, ‘I’ve got six minutes left in my career if we don’t get it going,’ ” Hickman said. “After we met on the sideline, we had another huddle on the court and just talked about taking it up a notch.

“We really rolled coming out of the timeout.”

The Aggies outscored the Ragin’ Cajuns, 11-1, in the next five minutes to open a 71-65 lead and take control.

New Mexico State, winner of its last eight games, will take a 25-7 record into its West Regional semifinal matchup against top-seeded UCLA (27-4) Thursday night at Albuquerque, N.M. The Aggies are seeded 12th.

“They played terrifically,” Fletcher said. “We played well for most of the game, but had some breakdowns down the stretch. New Mexico State made the big plays--they deserved to win.”

New Mexico State was led by forward Cliff Reed, a 6-foot-5 junior from Las Vegas who scored 21 points and took 11 rebounds.

Sam Crawford, the Aggies’ junior point guard from Westchester High and Moorpark College, had14 points and 10 assists, and William Benjamin, a senior guard from Santa Monica, scored 10 points.

Todd Hill, Marcus Stokes and Michael Allen each scored 15 points for Southwestern Louisiana (21-11), which also got 12 points from Byron Starks. Stokes led the Cajuns with 10 rebounds.