COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : New Mexico State Falls Short Because Its Shots Stopped Falling

This being New Mexico State’s state, the Aggies are used to the altitude.

So UCLA was the fourth-ranked collegiate basketball team in the country.

So UCLA led by 21 points with the halftime break still minutes of agony away.

So what?

In the first half of Thursday night’s West Regional semifinal, the Bruins threatened to leave New Mexico State choking on their vapor trail, but the Aggies refused to leave the hardwood at The Pit until being forcibly removed by Don MacLean.

In less than four minutes, New Mexico State sliced a 16-point halftime lead to six, opening the second half with a 10-0 run.

With 15 minutes to play, the spread was still six points and the Aggies seemed poised to make their third upset of this NCAA tournament one to eclipse them all.

“I’d ranted and raved and shocked them all at halftime,” said New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy, “but after that, I got real positive. I told them I wanted to be within eight points with 10 minutes to go.

“And we got there. I really thought we could win.

“Then we stopped making baskets.”

That tends to happen at New Mexico State, traditionally a defense-first, offense-when-it-comes kind of team that regards a shooting night of 45% from the field worthy of headlines. That had helped make the Aggies’ postseason run so remarkable--from nine points down in overtime of the first round of the Big West tournament to within six points and 15 minutes of the Final Eight.

But the shooting, sure enough, stopped and when it did, MacLean saw an opening and seized it. MacLean scored 11 second-half points to trigger the pull-away, as UCLA nervously held on for an 85-78 victory and a Saturday afternoon rematch against Indiana.

It was anything but easy, certainly more of a task than it had seemed in the first half, and for that, the Aggies were proud.

“They had to play a lot harder than they had in a lot of their games,” New Mexico State center Chris Hickman said. “If you look at the film of this game again, you will see that UCLA was up for the Aggies.

“That surprised me a little. I thought they might overlook us and be thinking about facing Indiana. But (Jim) Harrick did a good job of preparing them. UCLA understood they had to play tonight.”

That film will serve as the Aggies’ 1991-92 highlight film.

The sweat expended by those in the white jerseys will stand as the Aggies’ moral victory.

The Bruins had to work, lest they spend the summer months ahead comparing notes with DePaul and Southwestern Louisiana, NCAA victims A and B for New Mexico State. UCLA kept swatting, but the Aggies, led by lead gnat Sam Crawford, their 5-foot-8 point guard, refused to go away.

“It’s hard to play when you’re up by 16,” McCarthy said. “It probably took them awhile to be excited again.

“We had a long way to come, and we nearly made it all the way there. We got to where we wanted to be--down by eight with 10 minutes to go--and we had some open shots. From my vantage point, they looked open.”

They were.

They refused to fall.

New Mexico State got as close as seven points in the last minute and then, the run ended.

Some run, too. Fresno State was less than two minutes away from ending the Aggies’ season in the first round of the Big West Tournament two weeks ago. But New Mexico State survived that, beat Pacific by one point on a missed free throw two days later and then began to hit its stride.

“I never think a loss helps you,” McCarthy said. “We finish up 25-8 and I suppose losing to the No. 4 team in the country is no disgrace.

“But I keep thinking of the inches that got away. The offensive rebounds we couldn’t convert. The open shots we missed. An inch or two the other way and maybe it’s a different final score.”

McCarthy took a stab at a grin.

“I’m sure nobody expected us to get to the Sweet 16,” he said. “But we wanted to get to the ‘Eight.’ We’re just a little bit late.”