The New Mexico State men's basketball team got run over last night and it was all the Aggies could do to ask about the license number of the truck that did it.

Head coach Marvin Menzies stared at the Stan Sheriff Center roof as if seeking an explanation for the Rainbow Warriors' early double-digit lead and his players shrugged their shoulders before turning on one another on the bench and in the tunnel heading to the locker room at halftime.

Even 10 minutes after the 94-71 lambasting by Hawai'i, the Aggies never really seemed to know what hit them. Only that they had been hit, and hard.

"We got hit (with) a buzzsaw," Menzies lamented on his decidedly dour radio show. "It is still kind of a blur."

But if the Aggies never saw this one coming, the Stan Sheriff Center gathering of 3,485 quickly warmed to the surprising spectacle of the 'Bows' most impressive — and most well-rounded —victory in a 9-11 season.

On a night when many stayed home for the premier of "Lost", those who showed up saw a 'Bow team that found itself in all facets. Point guard Matt Gibson engineered his first double-double of the season — 20 points and 11 assists. Guard Jared Dillinger had a career shooting night — 5 of 9 3-pointers for 19 points — including four timely 3-pointers to end Aggie runs. And, all 10 players scored.

Only what was described as a kneecap injury to P. J. Owsley, whose status is uncertain, put a damper on the night's festivities.

Along the way, the 'Bows dived over tables, went into the crowd for loose balls, played stifling defense and generally left no opportunity untapped in raising their Western Athletic Conference record to 5-3 to stay in the thick of things at the first-half turn of the conference season.

The relentless Gibson, who left the game on a couple occasions to have cuts tended to — his only breaks in a 38-minute effort — suggested: "I used to be kinda cute. But not anymore."

"That was some big-time effort on their part," Menzies marveled.

Indeed, the one thing you could say about the Rainbow Warriors in this topsy turvy season has been that they play hard. Hardly the most talented team in the WAC, these 'Bows have put forth a strong effort nightly. But last night it all came together for them and was reflected in the win column as they took the Aggies apart with 24 turnovers that opened the way for 24 points. Only against Duke did the Aggies cough it up more.

Victories have been few and far between against New Mexico State — this being just the second in the school's WAC history — and you suspect the Aggies knew that and, maybe even counted on it. It would be a notion the Aggies should have been disabused of early on.

And one they were still trying to come to grips with on the way out of the building.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.