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, Calif.
Arizona State (6-1) will play Saint Mary’s in the championship game Friday. New Mexico (5-2) faces Southern California in the consolation game.
Jihad and BJ Freeman made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give Arizona State an 80-75 lead with 1:25 left.
New Mexico’s Mustapha Amzil followed with two free throws with 1:00 left. Alston Mason answered with two free throws for Arizona State to put the Sun Devils ahead 82-77 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 remaining.
After Jihad made one of two free-throw attempts, Amzil made a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 83-82 with 4 seconds left.
Mason, who scored 11 points, was fouled a second later and made both free throws.
Amzil missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. He finished with 28 points and eight rebounds.
Freeman had 16 points with a 7-of-8 performance at the free-throw line.
The game included 47 fouls called, resulting in 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 on a 16-1 run to take a 37-34 lead at halftime.
Amzil had 17 points in the first half on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 from 3-point range. He made all five of his free-throw attempts.
The Lobos extended the run to 21-1 at the start of the second half with a 3-pointer by CJ Noland and a dunk by Tru Washington. New Mexico led 42-34 with 18:10 left following Washington’s dunk.
The Lobos took a 60-51 lead with 10:04 remaining after Amzil made four free throws following technical fouls separated by only seven seconds on Arizona State center Shawn Phillips Jr. and coach Bobby Hurley.
Arizona State scored the next seven points, five 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’s 3-pointer with 1:25 left.
–Field Level Media
