2022-11-26 04:35:07
In their first appearance since Saturday’s shooting in Albuquerque that hospitalized New Mexico State basketball player Mike Peake and resulted in the death of a University of New Mexico student, the Aggies returned to the court.
A game versus New Mexico that had been scheduled for last Saturday followingnoon was canceled following the shooting.
NM State beat San Diego 90-77 in the first of two games at the Las Vegas Invitational at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday to improve to 2-1. The Aggies play UC Irvine at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday.
“It’s been some difficult times,” Aggies coach Greg Heiar said in the radio broadcast pregame show. “It’s like a movie but every day we get a little better. … We are resilient and will respond accordingly.”
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Heiar appeared to play his normal rotation with Doctor Bradley and James Beck making their first starts of the season while Issa Muhammad came off the bench for the first time in the Aggies’ first three games.
There was no media availability Friday, so it’s unclear if any player was disciplined following NM State officials reported this week that “multiple players” missed curfew on the same night Peake was involved in the shooting on the UNM campus. NMSU officials have said none of the other players who missed curfew were present during the 3 a.m. shooting.
Speaking in a radio postgame interview regarding Friday’s game, Heiar called the team’s performance “an ultimate team effort.”
“It was really good to see how the team responded,” he said. “We had a really difficult week. I was really nervous going into this game. They all responded. We played like a team and showed what we are capable of.”
Xavier Pinson led the way for the Aggies with 25 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Pinson hit five triples in the first half to lead NM State to a 41-25 halftime lead.
The Aggies were 12-of-22 from 3-point range and shot 55 percent from the field with guard Dajuan Gordon hitting 4 of 8 from 3-point range and finishing with 16 points. Doctor Bradley finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds and Issa Muhammad had 14 points.
Pinson had 8 of the Aggies’ 25 assists. As a team, NM State drained 36 field goals. The Aggies had nine turnovers.
The Aggies led from wire to wire and by as many as 20 in the first half, but San Diego finished 19-of-20 at the foul line and closed to within 7 points in the second half before Deshawndre Washington (11 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists) hit a 3-pointer. Up by 6 points with under four minutes left, Anthony Roy hit a triple to keep San Diego at arm’s length.
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