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GAME NOTES: Two teams that are playing second fiddle in their respective conferences enter the weekend to take part in the annual BracketBusters event, as the Pacific Tigers welcome the New Mexico State Aggies to the Spanos Center in Stockton, California.

Pacific, which is a member of the Big West Conference, heads into this meeting in second place in the league with a 9-3 mark, trailing only UC Santa Barbara at the moment. The Tigers have had a pair of dominating wins in their last two contests, first taking out Cal State Bakersfield by a 71-44 score a week ago, and then Wednesday night topping Long Beach State on the road, 74-52.

As for the Aggies, who are also sporting a 9-3 league mark over in the Western Athletic Conference, they have been out of action since last Monday night when they stomped visiting Hawaii with an 88-64 victory. The win was the fourth in the last five games for NMSU and now has the squad trailing only Utah State in the standings with the conference tournament right around the corner.

With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, the Aggies are ahead by a commanding 29-8 margin, claiming a narrow 76-74 win in the most recent meeting in 2006 for their fifth straight over Pacific.

Once it became clear that the Aggies were going to register the win on Monday night, they called off the dogs and let some of the reserves share the spotlight. One of them was Troy Gillenwater who posted 18 points in a mere 18 minutes, matching the scoring efforts of both Jahmar Young and Jonathan Gibson. Wendell McKines registered a double-double for the home team as well with his 11 points and team-best 10 rebounds. Gillenwater has only been back in action for four games, but already he has made his presence felt with his 15 points and 6.5 rpg, which means at least some of the pressure in the paint has been taken off McKines (11.7 ppg, 9.7 rpg) and Hamidu Rahman (10.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg). But even with Gillenwater contributing, the main pieces of the puzzle are Young and Gibson with a combined 39 ppg and 139 assists over the course of 25 games.

The Tigers not only shot 53.1 percent from the field on Wednesday night, but also 10-of-19 behind the three-point line as they stormed past Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid. Coming in off the bench was Pat Eveland who scored a career-high 23 points, making all five of his three-point attempts and 9-of-10 from the floor overall. Sam Willard contributed 16 points and six rebounds in the victory as well. In six of the last seven games, this team has had a different leading scorer, which means at any given time the Tigers can turn to several players and ask them to shoulder the load. Then again, scoring a boat-load of points has not been what this team is a bout in 2009-10 because they are scoring just 65.2 ppg. That said, Willard is the lone double-digit scorer with his 10.2 ppg and he is first on the glass with close to eight rebounds per game as well. Unlike the Aggies, Pacific tends to put more emphasis at the defensive end of the floor where it has allowed just 59.5 ppg this season.

As long as the Aggies can get all their players in gear on the road, expect to see NMSU give Pacific a hard time and quite possibly send the Tigers to the loss column.