ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Basketball fans from around the state gathered under one roof — The Pit — for the single-game of the men’s basketball Rio Grande Rivalry between New Mexico and New Mexico State on Saturday night.

“This is fantastic, considering we’ve had them, you know, canceled or postponed in the past,” said NMSU fan Jerry Gaussoin. “So, this is awesome.”

“Definitely love it because we’re ahead in the series,” said UNM fan Ray Chavez.

And this one is different for a few reasons.

“We’ve cut down the rivalry to one game,” said UNM student Carlos Tenorio II. “You know, fans have mixed emotions about it, but the fact that we still get to play each other, you know, once a year is still fantastic.”

The one game change came after the 2022 shooting on UNM’s campus involving students and an NMSU basketball player.

“It was hurtful to see, you know, something that matters so much to the state of New Mexico and so many New Mexicans get taken away,” Tenorio said.

Because of that incident — and the bad blood that followed — Tenorio reached out to NMSU’s student fan group to collaborate on a new project.

“Here we are with a trophy made, and that that’s exciting, because you hear about all these other trophies and like the Big 10 and the SEC that were that were made by the fan,” said NMSU student Joseph Settle. “Oh, that’s interesting. I wonder how it happened.”

Settle and Tenorio, along with Quinton Morrison, came up with this, a new Rio Grande Rivalry trophy.

“We have the Rio Grande running down, of course, for the Rio Grande Rivalry, and two stars representing both the city of Albuquerque and the city of Las Cruces in both schools’ color,” Tenorio said. “So, we got red and the crimson down there for Las Cruces with Rio Grande Rivalry in the old western font.”

The trophy was designed by local wood worker Andy Hageman and paid for by students.

Both Tenorio and Settle said they want to give the rivalry the hype it deserves.

“I think it’s definitely one of the more underrated rivalries in both college football and basketball,” Settle said.

The Aggies got to take the trophy back to Las Cruces after defeating the Lobos 89-83 in overtime.