For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE
New Mexico State (19-4, 8-1 WAC) at Grand Canyon (14-8, 7-2 WAC) – 9:00 PM EST (ESPN3)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the Valley of the Sun where the Grand Canyon Antelopes will play host to the New Mexico State Aggies in what has become the WAC’s showcase rivalry during the past three seasons. Not only did New Mexico State beat the Lopes to claim the WAC’s auto bid last year, they also won the first meeting in Las Cruces on a half-court 3-point shot back in January. As if that weren’t dramatic enough, the Aggies upped the ante after coming back from a 10-point hole in regulation at Bakersfield on Thursday night to extend the game to overtime and also hit a game-winning 3 to win that game as well. Terrell Brown leads the Aggies at 12 points per game.
Grand Canyon came into Thursday night’s game as co-leaders in the WAC, but ended up losing a stunner at home to Texas-Rio Grande Valley coming into tonight’s game. The Lopes did challenge themselves with a tougher noncon schedule compared to last year, but unfortunately lost every game of note (South Dakota State, Seton Hall, Utah, Texas, San Diego and Nevada) going into WAC play. Alessandro Lever leads the Lopes at 12.7 points per game, but both teams will tell you that defense is their calling card; both teams are top 2 in points allowed in conference play.