LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's basketball team dropped its regular season finale to New Mexico State 107-81 on Saturday at the Pan American Center.
 
Junior Nick Dixon led UTRGV (10-21, 2-12 WAC) with 35 points, his second-highest scoring output of the season, on 14-of-19 shooting, including 3-of-6 from behind the arc, plus 4-of-4 from the line. Junior Dan Kimasa scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
 
Eli Chuha led NM State (25-5, 11-3 WAC) with 28 points on 7-of-11 shooting, plus 14-of-18 from the line, with nine rebounds. Ian Baker scored 21 points with seven assists. Braxton Huggins scored 16 points. Matt Taylor finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
 
UTRGV and NM State exchanged baskets over the first three minutes, with UTRGV going up 9-7 on a Dixon layup.
 
Chuha hit back-to-back baskets to propel NM State on an 8-0 run that made it 15-9, but Dixon hit a jumper, converted a four-point play and then hit another three as part of an 11-2 run that put UTRGV up 20-17.
 
UTRGV still had the lead at 25-23 after a free throw by sophomore Antonio Green with 10:55 remaining in the first before NM State went on a 17-4 run to go up 40-29.
 
Dixon converted a three-point play and made a jumper to bring UTRGV within 40-34 at the 5:27 mark.
 
UTRGV then pulled within three early in the second half when Green hit a layup and junior Mike Hoffman made a jumper to make it 51-48, but NM State only allowed UTRGV to put together back-to-back baskets once more over the rest of the game.
 
Sixth-seeded UTRGV opens up the WAC Tournament with a quarterfinals matchup against third-seeded UMKC on Thursday at 9 p.m. at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

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