Hawaii came out with its best energy and effort of the season last night.

Jahmar Young made the Rainbow Warriors leave the Stan Sheriff Center in the doldrums.

Young hit the game-winning 18-footer with less than a second left to send New Mexico State to a 71-69 win over the Rainbows before a crowd of 3,068.

After UH point guard Hiram Thompson put himself in contention for hero of the game—again—with a tying 3-pointer with 12.9 seconds left, the Aggies took the ball straight upcourt and waited until about 5 seconds were left at the top of the arc. Young dribbled right in rhythm and drained the stepback jumper over an outstretched Roderick Flemings.

“;They didn't give up, I just made a good shot. My JY sense kicked in,”; said Young, who finished with a game-high 26 points on 11-for-23 shooting. “;I knew it was good. Not to be cocky, (never had a game-winner) in games, never had that predicament before. But in practice I make a lot of those.”;

“;I felt like I played pretty good defense on him, put my hand up. Tough shot,”; Flemings said respectfully.

UH inbounded to Jeremy Lay with 0.9 seconds left, but his heave from behind halfcourt was well short.

Hawaii (9-10, 2-4 Western Athletic Conference) fell into seventh place, while NMSU (12-7, 5-1) won for the ninth time in 10 games and moved into a tie with Louisiana Tech for first.

Flemings finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for his ninth career double-double on his 23rd birthday.

Despite a couple of highlight-quality plays in a resurgent game, Flemings and Brandon Adams (14 points, nine rebounds) couldn't will the Rainbows to victory. Young had the dagger, but the game was decided in the first 5 minutes of the second half, as NMSU went from down 12 at halftime to a 45-42 lead with a 17-2 run coming out of the break.

The Aggies tuned up their press at halftime and came out with manic energy. NMSU hurried the UH guard tandem of Thompson and Lay, forcing turnovers and bad shots aplenty; UH had 17 turnovers to nine for the visitors.

“;I thought when we started the second half, we let them get back in the game too quickly because of unforced errors and bad shot selection,”; UH coach Bob Nash said. “;A good team like that, if you got a lead on them, you try to extend it. But we tried it the wrong way ... it gave them energy down at the other end because they were fighting to get back in the game.”;

From there it was a dogfight, and the energy was drained out of the building from NMSU's comeback. That is, until Lay lobbed an alley-oop for Flemings that looked to be way too high and far from the basket. Flemings climbed impossibly high, snatched it one-handed completely behind his head, and threw down the dunk to electrify the building.

The euphoria didn't last.

“;I think we let a few possessions get away from us. We had a few turnovers we shouldn't have had,”; Flemings said. “;We can never be a good team playing like that, even though we had a shot at the end.”;

The teams traded baskets until Lay hit an angle 3-pointer to give UH a 63-59 lead with 4:20 left. But NMSU came back with a three-point play from Hamidu Rahman and UH's final chance to go ahead came on an Adams drive with about 35 seconds left, but his banker missed and the ball went out of bounds to the Aggies. UH had to foul, and Jonathan Gibson (19 points) hit both free throws to put NMSU up 69-66.

After Thompson's 3, the visitors escaped without calling a timeout to set up a final play. Nash wanted a timeout, but the Aggies inbounded the ball too quickly.

“;Hawaii has a lot of heart, a lot of grit,”; NMSU coach Marvin Menzies said. “;In our 4 game, we come down and space the floor and create an opportunity for Gibson or Young. When you have good players you have to let them play.”;

UH crashed the offensive boards hard to stay ahead of the Aggies in the first half. Flemings in particular was all over the glass, grabbing seven boards for three putbacks and 15 points in the half. It was in part possible because NMSU's best rebounder, Wendell McKines, picked up three early fouls.

But once McKines (10 points, 13 boards) returned in the second half, so did the Aggies' momentum.

The Rainbows amassed 27 rebounds in the first half and 45 for the game, compared to 37 for NMSU.

With the impressive first period nearly complete, UH elected to drain the final 5.2 seconds of clock from their own backcourt and carry a 40-28 lead into the break.