QUOTES – New Mexico State 80, Indiana State 66

New Mexico State coach Chris Jans – “Most coaches probably wouldn’t tell their teams this but starting yesterday, we talked about this was a must-win for us. I wanted to put some pressure on them and see how they would react. It was important to play better. I would never have dreamt in a million years after the Davidson game we scored the first basket against Utah State and after that it was an avalanche, and we couldn’t stop it. Like I tell the guys all the time, there are no do-overs. It was huge for us to feel good again, to get that taste out of our mouth and earn our swagger back before we head home. I talked a lot before we arrived how this will either give you great exposure or expose you and we’ve had both. We’re always trying to play in these, it’s important for our program. I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach and the people in the tournament were unbelievable in terms of organization. They had to answers to our questions, they treated us very well. It’s a great environment, it’s a real nice gym, it’s a good gym size for this type of tournament like this. Each team had their own fan base, and they brought enough people to make it fun.”

New Mexico State forward Donnie Tillman – “It really shows you what you’re made of especially down the stretch. These teams are really good teams. It was a great test. The biggest deal I got out of it is how our team handled the final four minutes, eight minutes. That’s a big deal to me and our seniors. You’ve got to lock down, execute well and I think we passed a really good test. We bounced back and I’m proud of my guys.”

Indiana State coach Josh Schertz – “Certainly credit to New Mexico State. We knew coming in it was a tremendous physical challenge in terms of trying to keep them off the glass and certainly the way they can guard, they’ve got incredible length at all five positions. Their shooting guard is taller than our center, so we were going to be tested. You can compensate in a game like that, you can get low in the checkouts. I didn’t think we were very physical for most of the game. They kind of beat us up. We were down 20 and for whatever reason it flipped, and I thought we started playing with much more force on the offensive end. We worked our way back in. I told the guys the road doesn’t get a whole lot easier.”