Arizona State opens NIT at home against Texas State

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State Sun Devils will host the Texas State Bobcats this evening in the West Regional of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

The Bobcats pounced on Howard Payne in their season opener, winning 102-67. Texas State is coming off a lackluster season in which it finished with a 14-16 ledger, and that included a meager 2-10 mark on the road.

As for the Sun Devils, they demolished an inferior Western Illinois squad in their opener, 87-35. Arizona State is coming off back-to-back 20-win campaigns, and that includes a 25-win season a year ago. The majority of the team's success has come at home over the last two seasons where the team has gone 27-8.

Texas State leads the all-time series with Arizona State by a count of 52-33, and the last meeting took place on December 8, 1998 with the Bobcats prevailing in a 100-44 final.

The Bobcats were impressive in their opener, as the team totaled 102 points en route to a convincing win over Howard Payne. Texas State shot 48.6 percent from the field in the contest, and that includes a solid 12-of-30 from behind the arc. Uriel Segura made his debut for Texas State and was impressive in netting 15 points, and the juco transfer also dished out four assists. Cameron Johnson, John Rybak and John Bowman each tallied 12 points in the win, while Johnson also collected seven rebounds. Tony Bishop was solid off the bench for Texas State, scoring nine points to go with eight rebounds. Johnson was one of the top options in the paint for the Bobcats a year ago, as the forward averaged 9.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg.

The Sun Devils were simply too much for Western Illinois in the season opener, as ASU collected an easy 52-point win. The Sun Devils held their overmatched opponent to just 23.1 percent shooting from the field and also forced 18 turnovers. Arizona State was even better offensively, as the team shot 56.0 percent from the floor. The Sun Devils also made 8-of-16 attempts from long range, and connected on 23-of-28 shots from the charity stripe. Jamelle McMillan who contributed just 4.8 ppg a year ago, poured in 12 points, while Demetrius Walker also added 12 points in 22 minutes off the bench. Rihards Kuksiks and Derek Glasser tallied 10 points apiece, while center Eric Boateng chipped in with nine points and nine rebounds. Kuksiks is the top returning scorer from a year ago, averaging 10.3 ppg. Kuksiks is listed as a forward, but he has tremendous range, shooting 44.3 percent from behind the arc in 2008-09.

Texas State had success in its opener, but it is highly unlikely the Bobcats will play as strong on the road against a much better team.