New Mexico State Basketball: Offense key to Aggies’ upset chances versus Clemson

It’s a classic 5 vs.12 matchup between Clemson and New Mexico State. With two elite defenses squaring off, the Aggies will have to find a way to score to pull off the upset.

It’s the immovable force vs. the immovable force.

When No. 12 seed New Mexico State squares off against No. 5 seed Clemson in their first matchup of the NCAA Tournament, it will be a battle between two of the best defenses in the country.

The Aggies only allow 63.8 points per game, 10th best nationally. The Tigers aren’t far behind. They only give up 65.8 per contest, putting them at 29th in the country.

There’s a very real possibility that the first team to reach 60 points wins.

With two consistently stifling defenses, it will come down to which team plays better offensively.

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While both teams are elite defensively, they’re both average on offense. New Mexico State averages just under 76 points per game, while Clemson scores just over 73. Neither team scorches the nets.

Clemson utilizes a balanced scoring attack. Four of the Tigers’ five starters are double-digit scorers, let by Marcquise Reed at 15.9 points per game.

After those four there’s not much scoring. No other healthy Clemson player averages more than 4 per contest.

It’s no wonder that the Tigers have been held under 60 points in four out of their last seven games.

The Aggies, on the other hand, only have two players with double-digit scoring averages. They do, though, have eight players that score more than four points per game.

More importantly, they have Zach Lofton.

The Wanderer

Lofton is one of the best players in the country that nobody’s heard about.

He’s taken quite the path to Las Cruces, New Mexico. The 6’4 senior guard played his freshman year at Illinois State, before transferring to Minnesota. Lofton was dismissed from the Golden Gophers without ever playing a game, losing that entire season. He redshirted the 2015-16 season at Texas Southern before leading the Tigers in scoring last year, earning SWAC Player of the Year and Honorable Mention All-American honors.

He took advantage of the graduate transfer rule to come to New Mexico State, where he’s led the Aggies to one of their best seasons in the school’s history.

Lofton his averaging 19.8 points per game, and has the scoring ability to completely take over games.

He’s come up even bigger in big games this year. He scored 23 in a win against Illinois and poured in 33 in a close loss to USC. In the WAC Tournament, he averaged 24.3 points over three games, leading the Aggies to their at-large berth into the Big Dance.

Next: Clemson and New Mexico State have a first-round battle

When Lofton is scoring, the Aggies are hard to stop. If he’s struggling, though, they may not be able to generate enough offense to pull off the upset.

But he’ll be the best player on the court, and when you have the best player anything can happen.