Rallies in the US state of Arizona to take action against New Mexico

Basheer Jihad had 20 points and Joson Sanon added 19 to lead Arizona State to an 85-82 victory over New Mexico in an Acrisure Invitational semifinal game Thursday night in Palm Desert, California.

Arizona State (6-1) will face Saint Mary’s in the championship game on Friday. New Mexico (5-2) will face Southern California in the consolation game.

Jihad and BJ Freeman scored three points on consecutive possessions to give Arizona State an 80-75 lead with 1:25 left.

Mustapha Amzil of New Mexico followed with two free throws with 1:00 left. Alston Mason responded with two free throws for Arizona State, giving the Sun Devils an 82-77 lead with 23 seconds left.

Donovan Dent, who led New Mexico with 30 points and seven assists, then drove to the basket and converted with 15 seconds left.

After Jihad made one of two free throw attempts, Amzil made a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 83-82 with four seconds left.

Mason, who scored 11 points, was fouled a second later and made both free throws.

Amzil missed a three-pointer at the buzzer. He finished the game with 28 points and eight rebounds.

Freeman had 16 points with a 7-of-8 performance at the free throw line.

The game featured 47 called fouls, which led to 64 free throw attempts. Arizona State made 24 of 32 shots from the free throw line and New Mexico sank 28 of 32.

New Mexico closed the first half with a 16-1 run and took a 37-34 lead at halftime.

Amzil scored 17 points in the first half on 5 of 9 shooting from the field and 2 of 4 from 3-point range. He made all five of his free throw attempts.

The Lobos extended the run to 21-1 early in the second half with a 3-pointer from CJ Noland and a dunk from Tru Washington. After Washington’s dunk, New Mexico led 42-34 with 18:10 left.

The Lobos took a 60-51 lead with 10:04 left after Amzil made four free throws against Arizona State center Shawn Phillips Jr. and coach Bobby Hurley following technical fouls that were just seven seconds apart.

Arizona State scored the next seven points, five of them by Jihad, to cut the lead to 60-58 with 9:04 left.

After that point, neither team led by more than four points, as they had seven ties and five lead changes before Freeman hit the three-pointer with 1:25 left.

–Field level media