March 15, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Eddie House wasn't ready to let his record-setting career at Arizona State end Thursday night.
So with the Sun Devils facing a huge halftime deficit in the first round of the NIT, House gave himself a little speech.
House listened to himself, scoring 22 of his 32 points in the second half and Arizona State rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to defeat New Mexico State 83-77.
Arizona States advances to a second-round game at North Carolina State.
"Yes, I said that," House said. "Twenty minutes, I said if I can't go out and play as hard as I can for 20 minutes, I don't deserve to play the game of basketball."
Arizona State (19-12) trailed 45-29 at halftime, thanks in part to 18 points by New Mexico State's Eric Channing. The Sun Devils opened the second half with a 27-10 run to take the lead at 58-57 with 10:33 remaining, House, who became the school's career scoring leader in the first half, scored 12 points in the run.
House has 2,012 points, breaking the career record of 1,984 set by Jeremy Veal from 1994 to 1998.
"We were disgusted with ourselves the way we played in the first half," House said. "We weren't patient. We didn't get the ball inside. Everybody was shooting jump shots."
New Mexico State (22-10) came back to lead once more before Arizona State got a basket from Kyle Dodd with 9:08 left to take the lead for good.
A 3-pointer by Channing pulled New Mexico State to 72-69 with 3:33 left before Arizona State put the game away with five free throws down the stretch.
Arizona State coach Rob Evans, who played in college for New Mexico State coach Lou Henson, credited defense for his team's comeback.
"At the beginning of the second half, we turned up the defense," said Evans, who thought his team deserved an NCAA tournament bid. "It's not an easy situation for them (the Sun Devils). Their goal the whole season was to get to the NCAA tournament. It took them a while to turn up the intensity."
New Mexico State hurt itself at the free throw line in the second half, missing eight of 16 attempts.
"We do not have a lot of depth and that hurt us," Henson said. "In the second half, they were much stronger than we were.
"We lost to a good team. Eddie House is a super shooter."
Channing led New Mexico State with 21 points, Billy Keys had 16 and Zack Norvell 13. Avey Storey added 13 points and Chad Prewitt 10 for Arizona State.