Nov. 17, 2009

Final Stats

Tempe, Ariz. - The Arizona State men's basketball team used a 16-2 run in the final four minutes of the first half to overcome a one-point deficit and go on to defeat Texas State 84-62 in the opening round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Tipoff on Monday night in Tempe, Ariz.

The opening 15 minutes of the game was filled with each team fighting back and forth for control of the game. Texas State opened the game with John Rybak hitting back-to-back three-point shots and Jonathan Sloan scoring two more points on a lay-up to take an early 8-4 lead. Arizona answered with a 15-5 run to take a 19-11 lead with 13 minutes left in the half. Then, Texas State came right back with another 13-4 run to take its final lead of the game at 24-23 with six minutes to play in the first half.

That is when the Bobcats went ice cold and to complicate matters point guard Uriel Segura picked up his third foul. Arizona State took advantage as Texas State missed its next six shots and committed four turnovers in the next five minutes to take a 39-24 lead before Tony Bishop banked a shot in from inside the lane to make the halftime score 39-26.

The second half started much like the opening period ended as the Devils outscored the Bobcats 13-4 in the first eight minutes before J.B. Conley nailed a three-point basket to make the score 52-33. Tony Bishop scored five straight points on a pair of lay-ups and a free throw to pull the Bobcats back to within 15, 53-38 with 11:29 left to play. That was as close as Texas State could get as Arizona State ended the game outscoring the Bobcats 31-24 the rest of the way.

Cameron Johnson scored 14 points to lead Texas State, while Emmanuel Bidias A' Moute pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with four points. Sloan finished with nine points before leaving the game in the second half with an ankle injury.