Who’s Playing
N. Mex. State Aggies @ UTEP Miners
Current Records: N. Mex. State 9-6, UTEP 12-3
How To Watch
What to Know
N. Mex. State has enjoyed a five-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They and the UTEP Miners will face off in a Conference USA battle at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at Don Haskins Center. The Aggies pulled off an upset win in their last outing, and are hoping to pull that off once more against the 7-point favorite Miners.
N. Mex. State’s season wasn’t pretty last year but it’s starting to look like struggles are in the rearview. They blew past La. Tech, posting a 78-48 win. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 44-19.
N. Mex. State’s victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Christian Cook, who went 7 for 11 en route to 19 points. The dominant performance also gave Cook a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (83.3%). Another player making a difference was Robert Carpenter, who went 6 for 8 en route to 16 points plus six rebounds.
Meanwhile, UTEP waltzed into their contest on Saturday with five straight wins… but they left with six. They rang in the new year with an 81-72 win over the Bearkats.
UTEP got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Devon Barnes out in front who went 6 for 10 en route to 17 points plus two steals. The team also got some help courtesy of David Terrell Jr., who earned 11 points in addition to six assists.
N. Mex. State pushed their record up to 9-6 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. As for UTEP, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they’ve won nine of their last ten games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season.
Saturday’s matchup is shaping up to be a scrappy match: N. Mex. State has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 38.7 rebounds per game. It’s a different story for UTEP, though, as they’ve been averaging only 29.8. Given N. Mex. State’s sizable advantage in that area, UTEP will need to find a way to close that gap.
Not only did both teams in this Saturday’s contest win their last matches, they also took care of their bettors and covered the spread. Looking forward, UTEP is the favorite in this one, as the experts expect to see them win by seven points. This contest will be their seventh straight at home (so far over this stretch they are 2-3 against the spread).
Odds
UTEP is a solid 7-point favorite against N. Mex. State, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers were right in line with the betting community on this one, as the game opened as a 7-point spread, and stayed right there.
The over/under is 138.5 points.
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Series History
N. Mex. State has won 7 out of their last 10 games against UTEP.
- Feb 10, 2024 – UTEP 74 vs. N. Mex. State 49
- Jan 04, 2024 – N. Mex. State 63 vs. UTEP 53
- Nov 30, 2022 – N. Mex. State 95 vs. UTEP 70
- Nov 12, 2022 – UTEP 67 vs. N. Mex. State 64
- Dec 03, 2021 – N. Mex. State 72 vs. UTEP 69
- Nov 13, 2021 – N. Mex. State 77 vs. UTEP 71
- Dec 03, 2019 – N. Mex. State 59 vs. UTEP 56
- Nov 12, 2019 – UTEP 65 vs. N. Mex. State 50
- Nov 28, 2018 – N. Mex. State 62 vs. UTEP 58
- Nov 09, 2018 – N. Mex. State 96 vs. UTEP 69
