WBB Preview: Utah State Heads South For Second Matchup With New Mexico

The Aggies are headed to The Pit to take on the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday afternoon. When the teams met on Jan. 21 earlier this year, it was all New Mexico. Utah State wasn’t close when the Lobos came to Logan, and the 22-point loss wasn’t a unique sight for when these teams share the court. The Aggies are currently carrying a 16-game losing streak to the Lobos, with their last win coming on Jan. 9, 2016. Utah State has not fared well in The Pit and has a 1-14 record in the storied venue in Albuquerque. Utah State’s only win in The Pit was on Jan. 29, 2014, when the Aggies snuck away with a 75-69 win.

Utah State debuted a new approach to naming starters when it hosted the Lobos earlier in the year, fed up with lackluster defensive performances that were costing the team in a big way. For the most part, the offense had been fine, but the lack of defensive impact was letting opponents pile up points in a way that Utah State couldn’t keep up with. A few games prior, the Aggies fell to Boise State by a score of 82-77, after which an exasperated Wes Brooks said that he was "just trying to find five people who are going to guard.”

To find those five players, the first-year head coach implemented a unique system focusing on accountability and transparency. He determined that starters would be selected solely based on defensive performance during the practices leading up to game day. During practice, players earned points for turnovers, stops, boxing out, rebounds and other defensive accomplishments. They lost points for blunders like blown rotations, missed assignments and fouls. The staff tallied the points, and those final tallies alone made the starting lineup decision.

Where possible, Brooks said, the starters would be announced as early as possible, though that’s not always entirely within the control of the coaching staff, and Brooks and his brain trust have bigger things to worry about on game day. For the first try, that system resulted in a starting five consisting of Ava Smith, Cheyenne Stubbs, Elise Livingston, Jamisyn Heaton and Sophie Sene. Taliyah Logwood and Mia Tarver didn’t play, but Riley Ward, the freshman, did, getting in for her only time this season – time that Brooks said that she earned with, of course, good defensive effort in practice.

Stubbs had 24 points, Livington had 14 and Heaton had 13. Denae Skelton came off the bench and had 12. On the other side, Viane Cumber had a game-high of 25 while Alyssa Hargrove added 20, Joana Magalhaes added 17, and Destinee Hooks added 15. Hargrove also had eight rebounds, nine assists, and four steals, landing not too far from a triple-double.

Mike Bradbury’s Lobos embody and execute many of the philosophies and axioms that Brooks preaches. 

“The more twos you make, the more threes you can take,” is one of his mottos that New Mexico exemplifies. “Shoot, Aggies, shoot (or, in this case, Lobos),” is another. The similarities in vision aren’t a coincidence.

“(Bradbury) worked for Kevin McGuff at Xavier… We kind of have the same style of play and the same general philosophy,” Brooks said. 

The Lobos play fast, they turn teams over, they hit shots, they let it fly from range, they collect a lot of points and they win games. They are everything Utah State aspires to be.

“They are kind of where we want to be and how we want to play,” Brooks said. “We would love to put up 100.”

In all reality, the Aggies will likely be outmatched in The Pit. As far as matchups go, it's incredibly hard to match up against a team that your head coach openly talks about as the end-goal of a current rebuild. The Lobos are, as of now, a more advanced version of the Aggies, and Utah State won’t be getting any help from potential opponent apathy. With the conference tournament coming up, the Lobos, a team that Brooks projects as a potential tournament team, will be locked in with plenty to play for.

“New Mexico is bigger and stronger,” Brooks said after the last meeting, “We fought to the best of our ability.”

That is what Utah State can aim for again as it heads to The Pit. Playing to the best of their abilities, especially down the stretch, is exactly what this young Aggie team needs to be doing. The Aggies also have plenty to play for, but unlike the Lobos, Utah State’s payoff isn’t a month away – it’s a year away.

Players To Know

Joana Magalhaes: Magalhaes, the 5-5 freshman from Lisbon, Portugal, is probably the most dangerous offensive player out of all our players to watch. Her scoring average is just a bit lower than Hulda Joaqiums (7.5 PPG), but Magalhaes has explosive scoring upside and is more of a threat from deep. 

She torched the Aggies earlier this year and has been putting up solid numbers lately. After her 17-point game against the Aggies, she had three quiet games, and then in her last four is averaging 10.5 points. She went 4 for 7 from deep in that time, but didn’t take a three in her last outing against Utah State. Magalhaes, after Cumber, Hooks and Hargrove, has the fourth-most threes on the team and is averaging 6.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Amhyia Moreland: The senior forward is in her first year with New Mexico but is a familiar foe for Utah State, which got to know her well in her two years at San Jose State before she became a Lobo. Her final year as a Spartan, which also served apparently as a tryout for the New Mexico team, was her best. She started in 25 of 30 games and averaged 11.6 points, shooting 54.0 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from behind the arc. She also averaged 5.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. She has done a good job with her in-conference move and has been productive on a much better Mountain West squad.

She is the team leader in blocks and is third in the conference. She is averaging 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.8 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. She was mostly on rim protection and cleanup duty in her last game and had two points, three rebounds and two blocks.

Hulda Joaquim: While Magalhaes might be more of a player to worry about on offense, Joaquim is actually averaging more points per game, and could certainly have a bigger performance on any given night. The main difference is that while Magalhaes is a freshman, coming with all the sporadic traits of youth in college basketball, Joaquim is a senior and is more established in her game. This gives Magalhaes more upside, but Joaquim is the more reliable player on offense.

In addition to boasting reliable scoring output, she is also a beast on the boards. The 6-1 forward from Mozambique is in her third year with New Mexico and has become the team’s leading rebounder and the fifth leader in the conference. She is averaging 7.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Her past two games have been productive on both fronts. First, she had 11 points and eight rebounds against Boise State, then she had seven points and 11 rebounds against San Jose State. She also added an assist and a steal against the Spartans.

Stats To Know

Pace: Perhaps the most obvious similarity between the teams is the speed at which they play. The Lobos are one of the only teams that play with the same urgency that Utah State does, and that can intentionally keep up with the Aggies. 

They also play at a breakneck pace, they just do it better. They average 73.6 possessions per game, a small step behind Utah State’s 74.7, but they capitalize much better. The Lobos are averaging 97.6 points per 100 possessions, and while Utah State is averaging about a full possession more per game, it is doing much less with it. The Aggies are averaging 84.8 points per 100 possessions.

The Aggies already have the speed in their bag, now they just need to add this New Mexico-style efficiency to unlock a nasty offense. It’s a years-long process, but the Aggies are on their way to emulating the Lobos.

Three-Point Attempt Rate: Another very apparent similarity is the way both teams shoot the three. Utah State’s three-point rate is an otherworldly 42 percent, while New Mexico’s is lower, but still relatively high at 32.9 percent. 

Again, the Lobos are making the most of it. The Lobos are shooting 34.4 percent from deep while the Aggies are hitting a disappointing 28.4 percent. Despite the low accuracy, the Aggies are still getting a solid chunk of their scoring from deep off of volume alone. They are logging 38.9 percent of their production from behind the three-point line, 11th-most in the county. New Mexico also leans heavily on the three but is a bit more balanced. The Lobos get 32.6 percent of their points from deep.

Rebounding: There are many similarities between these teams, but there are also differences. One particularly stark contrast is the way the teams operate on the glass. Put simply, the Lobos are an adept rebounding team and the Aggies are the opposite. The Lobos are above average, but there isn’t necessarily anything earth-shattering about their performance here. They have a rebound rate of 51.8 percent and shine a bit brighter on defense, where they boast a defensive rebound rate of 73.6 percent.

The Aggies have a total rebound rate of just 44.4 percent. On offense they are only grabbing 27.7 percent of rebounds, giving the Lobo defense plenty of room to crash the boards with their impressive numbers. For comparison, Utah State’s defensive rebound rate is 63.9 percent.