Trailing early, New Mexico State needed a spark in its WAC Tournament Championship game showdown with Grand Canyon.

Enter Ivan Aurrecoechea and Trevelin Queen.

Aurrecoechea hit his first four shots to help the Aggies erase an 8-0 deficit and then Queen stepped up and took New Mexico State home, scoring a career-best 27 points to lead an 89-57 throttling of the Lopes at Orleans Arena.

The tournament title game rematch was only within single digits once in the second half as Queen was 9 of 15 with six 3-pointers, leading an Aggies team that hit 17 shots from distance.

More:Trevelin Queen has proven to be a valuable late addition for New Mexico State

The emotion provided by the two juniors was exactly what New Mexico State needed as the Lopes opened the game with high energy.

"I was able to bring my teammates up and do whatever coach asks me to do, whether it is taking a charge or setting a screen. Whatever," Queen said. "I am just glad to be a part of this."

A 22-6 second-half run swept over Grand Canyon, which was looking for its first NCAA Tournament berth. Instead, the Aggies secured their 22nd trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA Tournament selection show airs at 4 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

Terrell Brown, who was also named to the WAC All-Tournament team said that once the 3-point shots were falling for the Aggies, it was contagious.

"Once you start shooting, that rim just gets bigger and bigger," said Brown, who finished with nine points — all from long range.

Clayton Henry hit four 3-pointers, scoring 14 points, as NM State was 17 of 39 from distance, shooting better than 50 percent in both halves.

Aurrecoechea finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes and Queen gave NM State a lift in every way he could, on offense, defense, in transition and as a lightning rod for the Aggies fans that filled Orleans Arena.

The performance earned the 6-foot-6 Queen WAC Tournament MVP honors. Several times during the game Queen pointed into the Aggies contingent in the stands and the junior was visibly overcome by emotion when Jans pulled him out of the game late in the second half.

"Around this time last year, I didn't know what I was going to do or where I was going to be," said Queen, a transfer from New Mexico Military Institute. "It just feels good to see my family in the stands and for them to be here. I know God works in mysterious. Every shot I shot, it felt like it just touched me. I almost cried on the court after every shot."

New Mexico State head coach Chris Jans, who has led the Aggies to the tournament in both of his seasons, said the team didn't panic after an early deficit and that several players, including Shunn Buchanan were encouraging on the sideline.

"Our guys know it is a 40-minute game. We had people like Shunn Buchanan getting in there and being a vocal leader ... when you are the coach and you are sitting in those huddles and your players are talking like that it is a pretty comfortable feeling.

"We felt like over the course of the game, our depth was going to come into play. We were going to keep coming at them in waves."

Grand Canyon head coach Dan Majerle said his team "ran out of gas" in Saturday's championship game.

The Aggies continued their dominance in the series, improving to 13-2 all-time against GCU, including wins in the last six matchups.

The Lopes played eight players, with six garnering the majority of the minutes.

Carlos Johnson, who went off for 31 and 35 points in WAC Tournament wins over Seattle and Utah Valley, was held to nine points for GCU.

NM State played 14 players with 10 seeing at least 10 minutes of court time.

"We have so many players off the bench that we can put anybody in at any given time," Brown said. "We saw they were running out of gas and we kept rotating people in. That is how we got that lead."

DANCING AGAIN

New Mexico State now turns its sights to Sunday's selection show where the Aggies will find out their NCAA Tournament destination.

The school will host a viewing party at the Barbara Hubbard room in the Pan American Center at 4 p.m.

"In the fall you work tirelessly to get yourself in that opportunity," said Jans of the Aggies seventh tournament berth in eight years. "I am really proud of our guys. They played amazing basketball. It was one of our better games."

The Aggies will represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in 14 years in the WAC.

Jans said his team will try to learn from its experience last year, when the Aggies lost as a 12 seed to 5th-seeded Clemson.

"Hopefully we get a decent draw," Jans said. "We didn't play great last year. We played better in the second half, but last year's team ... the platform and stage, we didn't play normal.

"I like our team and I like where we are at. We are really playing probably our best basketball of the season. I know they are going to be excited and locked in to the game plan. Hopefully we can be the team that breaks through that barrier."