QUOTES – New Mexico State 75, Davidson 64

New Mexico State coach Chris Jans – “A back and forth game. But against good teams you coach long enough you’re sitting your mind going ‘Yeah, I want them to start off well’ but it’s almost been-there-done-that and they’re going to come back. They’re too well coached, they’ve got too good of players and I knew they would come back. Unfortunately, we did our part in letting them come back and then it became a 10-point game so that was pretty frustrating. I think the big key was the end of the half cutting it to five. In the second half, we found a way to get a lead and held them off. I would imagine it probably has something to do with our team’s personality with five returning players. We sometimes probably get too high and too low and we’ve only had three games. This is the only one we trailed in so that was a new experience for us. It’s almost like they pricked our balloon and took the lead back we were deflated. I like where we’re at bubt it’s a quick celebration and try to get ready for the next one.”

Davidson coach Bob McKillop – “They knocked us on our heels to start, we knocked them on their heels, they came back right before half. They made some big 3s down the stretch that really hurt us. They made 3s in a number of ways and of course the one that was a backbreaker was the one at the buzzer from the deep corner. We settled into what we do and we read better and that’s a big part of what we do, read what the defense is giving you and they elevated their intensity in the second half and every catch, every dribble, every pass wasn’t as fluid as it was in the first half. I fault myself for not using the bench more so I take responsibility. That’s one thing we can learn in this situation, how our bench is going to perform and I just didn’t have an opportunity … I didn’t take the time to use the bench as I could have.”