The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team’s modest four-game win streak came to an end with a resounding thud in a lackluster 50-44 loss to New Mexico State on Thursday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (12-7 overall, 3-1 Conference USA) never could find a rhythm offensively with its lowest output of the season – plagued by 35% shooting and 19 turnovers.

“I felt like all night we were too much individual play and not enough team play,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “We talked about it at halftime. We felt like there was a whole lot of dribbling to look for my shot instead of looking for my teammate. The few times we moved the ball I felt like we got good shots, but it came down to we dribbled ourselves into trouble. Nineteen turnovers is way too many turnovers in a low-possession game.”

WKU trailed most of the night, but was able to stay within striking distance until the final seconds.

With five assists on its first five made field goals, WKU led 13-12 late in the first before New Mexico State (7-9, 1-2) scored five straight to surge in front after one.

The Aggies’ advantage grew to 22-17 midway through the second before an 8-0 surge pushed WKU back in front. New Mexico State answered with the final four points in the half to inch ahead 26-25. WKU shot 48% in the first half, but was 0-for-8 from 3 with 10 turnovers that led to 10 points for the Aggies.

“We just couldn’t get any consistent ball movement,” Collins said. “It was either dribbling around looking for a shot or making a turnover. The few times we got ball movement, we got good shots. That credit goes to New Mexico State. They were scrappy on defense. They played a little zone. They played a little man, back and forth, but a lot of that is we had 19 turnovers. You can’t win ballgames when you turn the ball over that much.”

Teresa Faustino briefly pushed WKU back in front with a bucket three minutes into the second half, but the Aggies hit back-to-back 3s to make the score 32-27 midway through the third.

Acacia Hayes’ layup cut the deficit to 36-34 late in the third and then a free throw by Alexis Mead made it a one-point game early in the fourth quarter. New Mexico State regained control, scoring six straight to stretch the margin back to 42-35 with 6:15 remaining.

Four straight points trimmed the deficit to three. After three free throws by New Mexico State, Mead scored five straight points over a 40-second span to cut the lead to 45-44 with 2:09 remaining.

After forcing a turnover, WKU gave the ball right back – with the Aggies taking advantage of a couple of offensive rebounds before two free throws with 42.3 seconds left.

Mead missed a potential game-tying 3 six seconds later and New Mexico State hit three free throws in the final 13 seconds to seal the win.

“We were always right there,” Hayes said. “I think at one point I think we had 34 points for a very long time and they had 36 for a very long time. We couldn’t get over that hump, but we have to do better as a team to find what is working, who is hitting and get an easy bucket in those times when we go on stretches where we can’t score.”

Mead and Hayes paced the offense with nine points each, while Karris Allen added eight points.

WKU shot 24% from the field in the second half and finished the game 2-for-18 from 3-point range.

“I think we just went away from stuff that was working,” Mead said. “Last game we had a lot of easy, simple stuff that was working and I felt we went away from that this game. We tried to do too much on offense. We tried to dribble too much. We tried to make the hard passes rather than the easy passes. Simple ball screens, we just kind of went away from that this game. It hurt us in the end.”

New Mexico State shot 28% from the field, but was 6-for-18 from 3 for the game.

Jaila Harding led the Aggies with 12 points, while Molly Kaiser added 11 points.

“When you hold a team to 28% shooting, they shouldn’t win,” Collins said. “The only reason they would win is either you didn’t make shots – which we didn’t make a lot of them – or you turn the ball over a lot and didn’t get shots. We didn’t shoot the ball well from the perimeter and then we just turned the ball over way too much.”

WKU will return to action at noon on Saturday, hosting UTEP.{&end}