LAS VEGAS - New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies said Thursday's quarterfinal contest against Idaho was "a game of runs." It was his Aggies who would run the longest, persevere through a few Idaho spurts and advance to the semifinal round of the WAC tournament by upending the sixth-seeded Vandals 65-49 at the Orleans Arena.

Idaho coach Don Verlin was unable to break out of his conference tournament slump, falling victim to his fifth consecutive loss in the Orleans. The Vandals end their season at 12-18.

"Obviously it's tough when it ends," he said. "It's always hard for the seniors because we have four seniors who have really given a lot for this program."

The third-seeded Aggies keyed in on Idaho's vulnerability to a full-court press defensive set and forced the Vandals into 16 turnovers. Those turnovers led to 25 NMSU points.

The Aggies (22-10) have utilized their press sparingly this season, but Menzies applied it effectively against an Idaho team that possessed the conference's worst turnover margin.

"They had some problems with it against some other teams, it used to be a staple of our program, we're used to running it and we've seen it a lot this year," Menzies said. "We won three conference championships with it. ... Sometimes you've got to go back to old things that have been effective and that's what we did."

A contest between teams that were expected to match up well on paper certainly played the part for almost 30 minutes. Idaho trailed by four at halftime and kept the Aggies in check for the first 10 minutes of the second half.

But a team characterized by the monstrous presence of 7-foot-5 freshman Sim Bhullar, 6-foot-10 junior Renaldo Dixon and 6-foot-8 senior Bandja Sy, shot the lights out when it mattered and extended a five-point lead to 11 points with a jumper from Sy and 3-pointer from Mullings.

"I thought tonight New Mexico State just wore us down with their pressure and their athleticism and there in the second half we just ran out of gas," Verlin said. "When they needed to make the plays at the end of the shot clock I thought they did that."

A 9-2 run sucked the remaining energy out of the Vandals, who came into the tournament having won three of their last four games. In two meetings with the Aggies during the regular season, Idaho lost by a combined three points after the Vandals had put themselves in situations to win both.

"I thought this year we had a good enough team to make a run in this tournament," Idaho senior Kyle Barone said. "We weren't stopping them, we weren't scoring and it's hard to win if you do that."

Winless in the WAC tournament, Verlin will witness the departure of four seniors, but the loss of Barone will undoubtedly be the biggest blow to a program that also loses starters Mike McChristian and Mansa Habeeb, as well as big man Wendell Faines.

Barone was Idaho's first conference player of the year since 1994, when Orlando Lightfoot won the Big Sky Conference's MVP award.

Verlin addressed the state of the program, one that has compiled four 15-plus-win seasons, despite going 0-5 in the conference tournament.

"I think the program's in good shape. Obviously wins are really important and we've had a good run of that, been to the postseason three out of five years and one thing I'm going to tell you is that all of our seniors are graduating."

IDAHO (12-18)

Habeeb 1-7 5-8 7, C. Hill 5-11 2-2 14, McChristian 1-5 0-0 2, Barone 8-10 3-3 19, Madison 1-7 0-0 3, Harris Jr. 0-1 0-0 0, Douglas 0-0 0-0 0, Kammerer 0-0 0-0 0, Faines 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 18-45 10-13 49.

NEW MEXICO ST. (22-10)

Bhullar 3-5 1-5 7, Sy 5-11 2-2 14, Ross-Miller 2-3 1-2 5, Mullings 10-14 2-5 23, Dixon 0-1 1-2 1, Barry 2-3 0-0 4, Aronis 0-1 0-0 0, de Rouen 4-6 0-0 8, Buovac 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 27-45 7-16 65.

Halftime-New Mexico St. 32-28. 3-Point Goals-Idaho 3-19 (C. Hill 2-7, Madison 1-5, Barone 0-1, McChristian 0-3, Habeeb 0-3), New Mexico St. 4-9 (Sy 2-4, Buovac 1-1, Mullings 1-2, Aronis 0-1, de Rouen 0-1). Fouled Out-Faines. Rebounds-Idaho 26 (Barone, McChristian 5), New Mexico St. 26 (Bhullar, Sy 7). Assists-Idaho 9 (McChristian 3), New Mexico St. 5 (Bhullar, Dixon, Mullings, Ross-Miller, de Rouen 1). Total Fouls-Idaho 17, New Mexico St. 14. A-NA.

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Lawson may be reached at laws2046@vandals.uidaho.edu.