Thoughts after first two games?

I thought NMSU would go 3-0 in Hawaii. Host Hawaii beat Tennessee State by 30 on Friday so I don't know what to make of the Aggies 70-55 victory over TSU on Saturday in a game the that was a four point game with 7 minutes left.

Standout player to me through two games is Chili Nephawe and DK Eldridge showed some signs on Saturday. Hawaii will be a tough game on Tuesday.

New Mexico State got into the win column with a 70-55 victory over Tennessee State on Saturday in Hawaii.

The Aggies are 1-1 on the season and close their Hawaii trip against Hawaii on Tuesday at 3 a.m., on ESPN2. NMSU head coach Marvin Menzies was pleased with his team's effort coming off a 70-64 loss to Western Michigan on Friday.

"When you have a loss like we had on Friday, you know your guys are going to get tested right away," Menzies said. "I think we answered that question. I wanted to see how they would respond."

NMSU improved at the foul line, shooting 22-of-28 at the foul line. The Aggies out rebounded Tennessee State 41-23 and the Aggies shot 48 percent from the field.

"I just wanted us to respond and play hard," Menzies said. "We still had miscues with turnovers (17 on Saturday) and a lot of them were unforced. We were good on the glass again and I knew we could shoot better (at the foul line). We left 15 points at the charity stripe on Friday."

The Aggies went up 29-14 with a 14-2 run started by back-to-back Kevin Aronis 3-pointers and capped with an Aronis jumper with 6:49 left in the first half.

Tennessee State pulled within two at 31-29 with 2:39 left in the first half on a Patrick Miller jumper. Miller scored 20 of his 30 points in the first half, but the Aggies pushed the lead back to 38-32 at the half.

Tennessee State continued to hang around in the second half, closing to within five before a DK Eldridge 3-pointer made it 54-46 with 8:25 to play. TSU closed to within four only for Eldridge to answer again as the junior college transfer scored 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting including 2-of-3 from 3-point range.

Eldridge sparked a decisive 13-0 run  that put NMSU up 67-50. TSU was scoreless for nearly seven minutes before Miller scored with 55 seconds left.

Eldridge was one of four Aggies in double figures. Daniel Mullings led the Aggies with 16 points, Sim Bhullar had 12 points and eight rebounds and Tshilidzi Nephawe had 11 points and 11 rebounds, going 7-for-10 at the foul line.