New Mexico State Aggies drop opener of Arizona Tip-Off to Pepperdine

[ad_1]

New Mexico State couldn’t overcome a slow start and a 17-point deficit in the second half, falling 82-70 to Pepperdine Friday afternoon at the Arizona Tip-Off in Tempe, Ariz.

Peter Filipovity scored 15 points with 11 rebounds to lead the Aggies (3-3), who lost their third straight game. Afterward, New Mexico State head coach Jason Hooten delivered a lengthy emotional and angry post-game locker room speech to his players Hooten called a “come-to-Jesus” moment.

The NM State locker room at Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University was closed for at least 45 minutes after the game.

“You always have to have a ‘come to Jesus’ every year,” Hooten said. “I’ve had teams that have won 26 games and there’s at some point in time in your season where you have to ‘come to Jesus.’ So you just gotta figure it out and how good you want to be and what you want to be. We didn’t do anything that we worked on (before Friday’s game) and those guys gotta figure it out, they’ve gotta figure out how good they want to be.”

Stefan Todorovic finished with 22 points to lead the Waves, who moved on to play Weber State in the Desert Division championship game on Saturday. The Aggies face Bowling Green (2-5), who lost to Weber State 73-70 earlier Friday.

New Mexico State got as close as seven points down in the second half, 66-59 with 4:43 to play after trailing by 17 eight minutes earlier. But Tedorovic made a fadeaway jumper while being fouled at the 3:50 mark, and Pepperdine went ahead by 12.

Robert Carpenter scored all 14 of his points in the second half and Dionte Bostick had eight of his 11 in the second half. Nate Tshimanga pulled down 10 rebounds for NM State.

“It’s just one of those games. We were flat and we weren’t ready to blame. As a head coach, you always take that blame, but we had a great walk-through and great preparation,” Hooten said. “I’m not sure what didn’t translate when we got to the floor.”

Filipovity said the talk was needed.

“We lost three games in a row,” he said. “Just…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mexico-state-aggies-drop-opener-010320003.html

Author : Las Cruces Sun-News

Publish date : 2024-11-30 01:03:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.