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The Aggies look to move into third in conference standings.
Source: NMSU Athletics
By Louis Bolander
Photo By Emilio Garcia for NMSU: Courtesy
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The NM State women’s basketball team will remain at home to host their second conference season matchup as they take of FIU in the Pan American Center. The battle among the two squads will be a test for the Aggies as the Panthers sit as the favorite over NM State in current standings.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Who: NM State (9-7, 2-1 CUSA) vs FIU(7-8, 3-1 CUSA)
Where: Pan American Center – Las Cruces, New Mexico
When: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM MT
Live Stream: ESPN+
Live Statistics: StatBroadcast
All-Time Series Record: NM State leads 2-0
Last Meeting: W 63-58 (March 14, 2024)
THE PRODIGY
The Watauga, Texas, native has spent all five seasons with the Crimson & White, making her the longest-tenured Aggie on the 2024-25 roster. Kaiser has over 1,500 points across her career.
Last week, Kaiser was named Conference USA Player of the Week for the third time this season after dropping 32 points against I-10 rival UTEP. With the standout performance, Kaiser now ranks 10th in the nation in points per game (21.1). Including her 29-point outing against Sam Houston, Kaiser is also responsible for the two highest scoring performances in league play this season.
FRESH FISH
Picking up her first Conference USA Freshman of the Week award, Madi Gewirtz now sits as the first and only player in Aggie program history to earn the honor. In the rivalry week facing the Lobos, she tallied 17 points, six steals, three rebounds and one assist. She produced four steals over the week as she set the team’s high in steals in a single game this season.
FANTA-STIC
Gassama holds the only four double-doubles by an Aggie so far this season. She currently ranks 27th in Division I with 9.8 rebounds per game and 1st in Conference USA. Gassama produced a notable game against I-35 rival New Mexico, tallying a season high of 13 rebounds and scoring nine points.
VETERAN LEADERSHIP
The Aggies are led by 11 upperclassmen, including nine seniors. Molly Kaiser and Diarrah Sissoko are each in their fifth season of collegiate basketball, headlining a 15-person roster that has 50 combined seasons of experience, including 32 at NM State. Four Aggies are on at least their third season in the program: Molly Kaiser (five), Sylena Peterson (four), Sianny Sanchez-Oliver (four) and Lucía Yenes (three).
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INTERNATIONAL AGGIES
There are seven Aggies with international backgrounds on the 2024-25 roster. Four of those seven hail from Spain (Fanta Gassama, Noah Garcia, Marta Guilera, Lucía Yenes). Hungary (Anna Csenyi), Netherlands (Loes Rozing) and Mali (Diarrah Sissoko) are also represented on this year’s squad. Four of six Aggie newcomers are form overseas, rounding out a roster that is 38.3% international. 384 of the Aggies’ 837 points this season have come courtesy of international members, accounting for over 45% of the team’s production thus far.
GUESS WHO’S BACK… BACK AGAIN
Nearly every rotational guard and wing has returned in action in 2024-25, with 75.66% of the 2023-24 point production still on the roster. Additionally, the returning Aggies accounted for 85.14% of all assists and 97.71% of 3-pointers made (128 of 131) a season ago.
CONFERENCE NUMBERS
The Aggies currently sit in 3rd within CUSA in points per game (68.5) and 47.6 field goals per game, led by Crimson senior, Molly Kaiser who is 2nd with her 21 points per game mark. She has also helped contribute with the team’s steal per game mark as the Aggies also hang in 4th in the conference with a 10.5 steal per game stat.
BEEN HERE BEFORE
While FIU took the first eight games of the series, NM State has emerged victoriously in the last two matchups including their 65-56 win to boost them to a No. 6 spot in last years conference tounament seeding. They also managed to knock off FIU in the first round of that tournament with a 63-58 win over the Panthers to andvance to the semi-finals in their first CUSA tournament appearance.
POURIN’ IN POINTS
The Aggies head into week three of CUSA play as the No. 1 scoring offense(67.3 ppg) and rank second in the conference in scoring margin (8.3 ppg) as well.
D-UP
At the moment, NM State rank third in the conference in opponent points per game (59.0) and is one of only three teams in the conference holding opponents to under 60 points per game.
NOTHING 3ASY
The Aggies held UTEP last game to just two buckets from the perimeter; the lowest percentage (18%) by an Aggie opponent since facing Santa Clara in the Gulf Coast Showcase on Nov. 30.
ON THE RISE
With her season high performance against UTEP, Diarrah Sissoko put up 11 points over the Miners with a 4-of-8 field goal finish. Coach Adams has increased playing time for Sissoko since conference play has started from 8.7 minutes to 20 minutes per game for her improving performance.
ONE LAST RIDE
This iteration of the Aggies revolves around fifth-year legend Molly Kaiser. The Watauga, Texas, native exercised her extra year of eligibility that she earned from the NCAA’s response to COVID-19, electing to spend her fifth and final campaign with the Crimson & White. In 2023-24, Kaiser led the Aggies in games played (31), games started (31), points (463), points per game (14.9), minutes per game (34.2), field goals made (165), free throws made (107) and free-throw percentage (86.3).
Last season, Kaiser drove and buried a patented elbow jumper shot to give her 1,000 career points, with every bucket coming as a member of the Crimson & White. She became the 25th member of the 1,000-point club, and the first since Gia Pack, who played for the Aggies from 2016-2020.
SCOUTING FIU
Leading the Panthers in her fifth consecutive season as head coach is Jesyka Burks-Wiley. Last season, She helped guide FIU to a third place finish in the conference, and tied for the second best record alongside Liberty. Burks-Wiley was named Conference USA Coach of the Year for her immaculate team showing.
FIU currently consists of the Preseason Player of the Year, Mya Kone, who has been out most of this season.
Leading the Panthers in scoring this season thus far is Parris Atkins who averages 14.2 points per game and has tallied 40 steals to this point of the season.
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