Rice leads New Mexico St. past Grand Canyon 67-53

PHOENIX (AP) — Jabari Rice had 16 points and nine rebounds as New Mexico State won its 17th straight game, defeating Grand Canyon 67-53 on Thursday night.

Trevelin Queen had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Aggies (23-6, 14-0 Western Athletic Conference), who only shot 37% and was 5 of 28 behind the arc but had a 48-26 rebounding advantage.

New Mexico State’s winning streak is the longest in the nation and the Aggies have won 29 straight conference games.

With 25 offensive rebounds, New Mexico State had 22 second-chance points, helping build a 40-28 difference in points in the pain. The Aggies socred the first 11 points of the second half for a 48-25 lead and pushed it to 26 soon after.

Alessandro Lever had 17 points for the Antelopes (12-16, 7-7), who scored the last 10 points of the game. Isiah Brown added 12 points.

Carlos Johnson scored only 5 points despite entering the contest as the Antelopes’ second leading scorer at 15 points per game. He made 20 percent from behind the arc (1 of 5).

New Mexico State defeated Grand Canyon 72-52 on Feb. 1. New Mexico State plays Cal State Bakersfield on the road on Saturday. Grand Canyon faces Texas Rio Grande Valley at home on Saturday.