University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
23-10,13-6Big East
New Mexico State
27-6,13-4WAC
UConn Falls To New Mexico State In NCAA Opener
3/17/2022 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
UConn Athletic Communications / March 17, 2022
New Mexico State Postgame Quotes
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Heading into its first-round game in the NCAA Championship, the 5th-seeded UConn men's basketball team knew it would have to find a way to contain Teddy Allen, the star player for 12th-seeded New Mexico State.
The Huskies never found a way.
Allen scored 37 points and made huge plays down the stretch to thwart repeated UConn threats as New Mexico State knocked UConn out of the tournament with a 70-63 win in the West Region first round at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.
"We knew it was going to be a really, really hard game," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "Super physical team. They do a lot of the same things that we do, and just they, obviously, got a performance from Teddy Allen today that -- that sent us home."
New Mexico State, which will face Arkansas in the second round on Saturday, won for the first time in the tournament since beating Syracuse in the first round in 1993.
UConn (23-10) could not find its shooting eye throughout the first half and, after Allen missed his first six shots, he caught fire and led the Aggies (27-6) to a 32-22 halftime lead.
The Aggies built the lead as wide as 38-24 early in the second half, but UConn clawed its way back into the game led by top scorer R.J. Cole, who finished with a team-leading 20 points
The Huskies finally caught New Mexico State, 52-52, with 5:08 remaining and again, 58-58, with 2:06 to go, but could never get the stop and score that would have given them the lead. At 58-58, Allen canned a raibow three-pointer that put the Aggies in front, 61-58, and he scored 9 points in the final minute to keep NMSU in front to the end.
Besides Cole's 20 points, sophomore Adama Sanogo had 10 points and 8 rebounds for the Huskies.
"I wouldn't want to go to war without any one of those guys that were out there with me today, even the ones that didn't get in the game," said UConn senior Tyrese Martin. "Going through what we went through, it hurts going out how we
went out. We're fighters. We just couldn't get over that hump, that one-point lead. We just couldn't find a way to get over that hump. That was the story of the game."
