The Sun Devils came to play against a Lobo team that beat them 76-62 last season, turning in arguably their most complete game of the year but ultimately coming up short 76-71. Junior Carrick Felix did his part, finishing slightly under his career-high with 20 points and also chipping in a team-high 7 rebounds while hitting 3 threes and going seven of eight in the free throw department. New Mexico had four players in double figures but were lead by solid efforts from Kendall Williams (16 points, seven rebounds, seven assists) and Drew Gordon (13 points and nine rebounds).
Arizona State turned in another proficient performance from the charity strike (18-25) but were yet again handcuffed by their excessive turnover problem (19 in the game). Starters Chris Colvin, Trent Lockett and Keala King combined for 14 of those 19 turnovers in their up-and-down performances. Despite the blunders, the Devils did show improved ball movement even though the assist numbers weren't exactly there (only 10 for the game).
Sendek also surprisingly rotated in eight players throughout the duration of the game, even with the Devils getting in some foul trouble early (Kyle Cain, Keala King and Ruslan Pateev all had three fouls before they went into the locker room for halftime).
ASU was almost able to complete a significant comeback after letting the game slip out their hands in the final ten minutes but a few narrowly missed threes late by King and Lockett sealed their fate.