RENO — It was a semi-historic night for the Nevada men’s basketball team Saturday, but that doesn’t mean the Wolf Pack was celebrating. Nevada was saddled with a 62-60 home loss by the New Mexico State Aggies.

The defeat, coupled with a 78-75 home loss to Louisiana Tech Thursday, meant Nevada was swept at home on a weekend in WAC play for the first time in seven years. In addition, it comes just four weeks after the Wolf Pack swept the same two schools on the road.

“It’s a disappointing loss,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said. “Credit New Mexico State. They played well. We played well at times, just not enough …

“We use this to get better. Certainly it’s disappointing.”

New Mexico State’s Wendell McKines drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key that gave the Aggies the two-point lead and accounted for the final score. The key 3-pointer came just 30 seconds after Nevada’s Armon Johnson had dropped in a runner and given the Wolf Pack its first lead in six minutes.

Following McKines’ three, Johnson missed his own three-point try from the top of the key. Aggies 7-foot center Hamidu Rahman secured the rebound and was fouled with 34 seconds showing on the clock. Rahman, a 56 percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end of the bonus.

Nevada got the rebound and called two timeouts on its ensuing possession, the last with 14 seconds left. The Wolf Pack, which did not even get a potential game-tying shot off in its loss to Louisiana Tech Thursday, saw Johnson drive into the lane in the waning seconds. Johnson got off a runner that rimmed off. He got his own rebound and kicked out to Luke Babbitt, but the Wolf Pack’s freshman missed an 18-foot jumper with a pair of Aggie defenders flying at him as time expired.

“They all collapsed in the lane. I tried to get a shot off in the lane. I missed it. That’s unfortunate,” Johnson said before adding that his squad struggled with its offensive decision making. “We’ve seen pressure before. I think we just made some misreads and had some miscommunications at times.”

After trailing at halftime, 33-32, Nevada got off to a good second-half start. Joey Shaw’s layup with 16:10 remaining in the second half saw the Wolf Pack go up 44-39.

Nevada was clinging to a four-point edge, 47-43, after a Johnson 3-pointer at the 10:54 mark of the second half. New Mexico State took control by scoring 10 of the next 14 points to capture a 53-51 advantage, following a dunk by McKines with just under six minutes to go.

New Mexico State forced 16 Nevada turnovers while only committing nine. That stat helped the Aggies outscore the Wolf Pack 21-5 in points off giveaways. The Las Cruces, NM school also held a big advantage at the charity stripe. It only made 11 of 21 tries from the line, but Nevada was just 5-of-11.

Nevada did win the rebounding war 39-36 and held a slim edge in shooting percentage 42.9 percent (24-56) compared to 40.7 percent (24-59). It just could not overcome giving up easy points on turnovers.

“I’m not sure they created them. We created a lot of them. We had some turnovers that were very costly,” Fox said.

Johnson scored 16 points and knocked down 4-of-6 from beyond the arc to lead Nevada in scoring. Babbitt added 14 points, but was limited to three in the second half and got off just four shots in the second 20 minutes.

Jahmar Young led the Aggies in the scoring column, finishing with 17 points. McKines and Rahman contributed 13 and 11 points respectively to the guests’ winning cause.

Nevada looked like it might take firm control midway through the first half. Lyndale Burleson’s steal and break-away layup gave the Wolf Pack a 26-16 lead with 7:43 left before halftime. However, just as in recent Nevada games, the Wolf Pack struggled to build on a lead and it watched an opponent get right back into contention

“We started off pretty well. We just weren’t able to sustain it,” Babbitt said. “Give credit to New Mexico State. They played hard … I think overall we might play a little looser on the road, but we have to fix that. We have to protect our home floor better.”

New Mexico State proceeded to score 11 straight points in a span of less than three minutes. Young’s 3-pointer concluded the run and gave the Aggies a 27-26 lead with 3:28 still remaining in the first half.

The one-point margin stayed intact into the break. Gordo Castillo’s trey with 25 ticks to go before the intermission capped the scoring on the first half and left New Mexico State (12-12, 6-5) with a 33-32 halftime lead.

“I thought our defense was much better (than Thursday), especially in the first half. We were able to get some offense from our defense. But in the second half, they shot 50 percent. That’s not good enough (defensively),” Fox said.

Nevada is now 13-10 overall and 6-4 in conference clashes. The Wolf Pack is on the road Thursday for its next game, a WAC affair at San Jose State that tips at 7 p.m.