The Blaze

By Josh Green and Mike Sackley

Greetings, and welcome to The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Josh Green here sitting at center court, as we are forty minutes away from the start of ASU’s 2010-2011 basketball season. Tonight, the Sun Devils take on the two-time defending Mountain West Champion New Mexico Lobos.

Pregame

-The Sun Devils just took the court to some light boos. Not many people here forty-five minutes before tipoff.

-The New Mexico student section is surprisingly small.

-Former ASU guard Demetrius Walker is in the building and dressed in street clothes. Walker transferred to New Mexico this past season and must sit out a year, per NCAA rules.

-We’re eleven minutes away from tipoff. People are still filing into their seats. Both teams have cleared the court.

-New Mexico just took the court to a loud standing ovation from the Lobo faithful. Conversely, ASU takes the court to a chorus of boos.

-A video introducing The Pit just went on the jumbotron. Fans are starting to get into it.

Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

ASU- Jamelle McMillan, Ty Abbott, Ruslan Pateev, Trent Lockett, Rihards Kuksiks

New Mexico- Kendall Williams, Dairese Gary, Curtis Dennis, Alex Kirk, A.J. Hardeman

First Half

-Alex Kirk and Kendall Williams receive quick fouls for the Lobos.

-Ty Abbott is looking for his shot early on, missing on his first two attempts.

-Trent Lockett scores the first six points of the ASU season. He’s playing some aggressive basketball right now.

-We’ve reached the first media timeout, with ASU up 8-3.

-Trent Lockett just threw down a monster one-handed dunk. The sophomore has eight of ASU’s first ten points.

14:50- Keala King makes his Sun Devil debut.

13:06- Corey Hawkins makes his Sun Devil debut. ASU up, 13-11.

11:38- New Mexico is on an 8-0 and takes its first lead of the game. Timeout on the floor with the Lobos up 15-13.

9:26- ASU has missed its first six three-point attempts. New Mexico’s run continues, now up to 15-0. Lobos up 22-13.

8:21- ASU has not scored in over five minutes of play.

8:13- Carrick Felix checks into the game for the first time. New Mexico, thanks to an 18-0 run, leads 25-13.

6:38- Trent Lockett finally ends ASU’s scoring drought that lasted over seven minutes. Lobos lead 27-15.

6:16- Keala King hits a free throw to make it 27-16, Lobos.

3:43- We’ve reached the final media timeout of the half, with New Mexico up 31-18.

2:52- Trent Lockett just threw down his second nasty one-handed dunk of the night. New Mexico is up 33-22.

2:21- ASU gets its first thee-pointer of the game, as Ty Abbott drills one from way downtown. Sun Devils cut the lead to 33-25.

1:36- Ruslan Pateev gets a nice tip in on an offensive rebound, and thanks to a 7-0 run, ASU now trails by just six, 33-27.

0:00- We’ve reached the end of the first half, with New Mexico leading 35-29. ASU went on an 11-4 run to end the half.

Second Half

About to start the second half here in Albuquerque

19:42 – The freshman Alex Kirk makes a big 3 pointer to start the half for the Lobos

18:38 – Big three point bucket for Rik Kuksiks

18:21 – Ruslan Pateev just committed his fourth foul and will be on the bench for a while, Lobos lead 40-32

16:27 – The Lobos lead by 11, making some big shots to start the 2nd half

15:42 – Carrick Felix makes a three pointer to cut the Lobo lead to 6

14:22 – ASU unable to answer the last two New Mexico buckets as the Lobo lead increases to 10

13:25 – Lobo lead still at 10 points, 49-39

12:58 – Carrick Felix draws the offensive foul, ASU has cut deficit to 6

12:00 – After the UNM offensive foul, ASU will shoot free throws from here on out

10:41 – Both teams in the penalty right now, New Mexico leads 52-45 after two Jamal Fenton free throws

10:03 – The officials call Ty Abbott for a technical foul for hanging on the rim

8:37 – Devils having a problem with turnovers, keeping them from cutting the deficit. Currently at 8 points

6:40 – The Lobos are starting to take control, they are passing the ball very well and are hitting their three pointers at a pretty consistent rate – New Mexico leads 62-49

6:13 – Trent Lockett with another highlight reel dunk. He’s been big down in the post for the Devils tonight – New Mexico leads 62-51 at the media timeout

4:39 – Lobos extend their lead to 64-51, the 3 point buckets are not falling tonight for the Sun Devils

3:50 – New Mexico’s Kendall Williams missed his first 3 pt FG of the night. Still, the Lobos lead by 14 with 3:52 to go

3:10 – Turnovers and being outmatched 1 on 1 down low have really hurt the Sun Devils tonight

2:50 – Dairese Gary banks in a 3 point shot to extend the Lobo lead to 71-53.

1:08 – ASU trails by 18 points, 76-58.

13.7 seconds – Keala King doing some good things in the final seconds, making two free throws and forcing a turnover. UNM leads 76-62

Final Score: New Mexico 76 – Arizona State 62

Look for a full recap coming up soon

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 2:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.