San Jose, Calif.-----C.J. Webster led all players with a season-high 22 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, but two late free throws by New Mexico State center Hamidu Rahman was the difference in the Aggies' 75-73 win over San Jose State on January 5.

The Spartans (6-6, 0-2 WAC) battled back first from a nine-point and later on an eight-point second-half in the second half to take a 73-72 lead with 1:58 to go on two Webster free throws. New Mexico State guard Jonathan Gibson made the front end of a 1-and-1 with 46 seconds left to tie the game. Gibson missed the back end of the sequence and Rahman came down with the rebound, but lost the ball to the Spartans' Robert Owens.

San Jose State set up a play to take the lead. With the floor spread, Justin Graham, who finished with 12 points and 7 assists, drove the lane, but missed his shot with 11 seconds to go. The Aggies' Jahmar Young then missed his 10-footer from the right side of the lane with 0:05 remaining. Rahman got position inside to tap the ball towards the goal and was fouled by Adrian Oliver with 2.7 seconds left.

"We got the stops we needed and had an opportunity to win the game with the ball. It just didn't go in," said San Jose State coach George Nessman.

"We couldn't do much better than that. We got Justin down to four feet. It just didn't go in. It got inside the rim and was close to going in," continued Nessman about the final 30 seconds. "We could have done a better job converging on the defensive end. We got them out, but they missed that scoring chance (by Young). We were able to assemble back defensively. The ball bounced to their 7-footer (Rahman). We had him screened out and the ball bounced high. If the ball bounced normally, we get the rebound and we're probably still playing right now."

Oliver, who finished with 15 points, had a chance to send the game into overtime or win it, but his baseline jumper from the right side hit the iron at the buzzer giving New Mexico State (8-7, 2-0 WAC) the win.

"For that situation, I thought it was a pretty good opportunity," Nessman said about Oliver's last shot.

"We thought they would go to Oliver and we had a switching defense (planned). It didn't matter who they selected. We were going to have to switch," said New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies about the game's final shot.

"We've had at least one stretch every game where we seem to lose our focus and just really struggle. It's not a long period, just a two or three minute burst, but against a good team, they're going to take advantage of that. We haven't been able to shake that out of our system completely. It's really a question of engagement and staying focused."

The Spartans' coach probably is referencing a 5.5-minute span early in the second half when San Jose State lost a 46-42 lead and found themselves trailing 57-49 with 13:40 to go. Four of the team's 13 turnovers gave New Mexico State an opportunity to comeback and make the Spartans play catch up the rest of the game.

The New Mexico State game marked the second time in three nights that San Jose State got a strong performance from Webster, took a game into the final 30 seconds and came up on the short end of the scoreboard.

"From USF to this moment, he's put  up a pretty good stretch and, certainly, what we expect from C.J., which is a lot. We need to get a little more consistent outside shooting. We're not shooting the ball consistently on the perimeter and clean up our mental errors.

"It definitely hurts. We definitely felt we could have won both of these games (against Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State). It came down to the wire and we were able to come out on top," said San Jose State guard Justin Graham.

Forward Wendell McKines led New Mexico State in scoring and rebounding with 21 points and 8 rebounds. Rahman, a 58.8 percent free throw shooter was 3-of-6 from the free throw line, scored 13 points including the two decisive ones in the game.

San Jose State returns to action, Thursday, January 8 at Boise State in a 7:00 p.m. (MST) game.