FULLERTON, Calif. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball suffered its first defeat of the season on Thursday afternoon in Titan Gymnasium, falling to Virginia Tech, 92-72. The Lobos are now 3-1 on the season.
“I thought our guys played hard the first half,” said head coach Craig Neal. “Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow and play better. We’re not going to be able to win big games like this if we give up 92 points. So, we have to continue to get better defensively.”
Tim Williams led the Lobos with his third double-double on the season. He scored 19 points and brought down 11 rebounds. He was 8-for-13 from the field and 3-for-4 from the foul line. Elijah Brown finished with 16 points, shooting 5-for-13 from the field, 2-for-7 from the three and 4-for-6 from the foul line. Jordan Hunter finished with a career-tying 10 points. He was 4-for-7 from the field with four assists and a steal.
The Lobos shot 44.8 percent (26-58) from the field, 28.6 percent (4-14) from the three and 76.2 percent (16-21). The Lobos out-scored the Hokies on second-chance points 16-14.
The Lobos started out the first half with a dunk from Obij Aget. Elijah Brown pushed the lead to 5-2 with a three but the game went back and forth for the rest of the first half. The game was tied 9-9 with 16:19 left in the half before the Lobos went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-9 lead. The Hokies worked their way back to tie it up 13-13. Back-to-back jumpers from Connor MacDougall and Brown gave the Lobos a 17-13 lead.
“I thought in the first half we did some good things but they made shots. The effort was there but we missed some shots that we usually make. We can’t give up that many threes, so that is something we have to work on.”
Virginia Tech took the lead with 8:39 left in the half. Two good free throws from Xavier Adams tied the game up at 23-23. The Hokies took the lead the rest of the way with 5:57 left in the half.
The Lobos closed the gap to five points off a Jordan Hunter trey but the Hokie lead went back up to eight after a made three with four seconds left in the half, Hokies leading 44-36.
The Lobos struggled on the defensive side of the ball in the second half, allowing Virginia Tech to shoot 60 percent (6-for-10) from the three. The Hokies went up by as much as 15 with 8:54 left to play, but a three-point play from Jalen Harris brought the Lobos within 12.
New Mexico will look to get back on the winning track in its second game of the Wooden Legacy Classic, as it will face Cal State Northridge tomorrow, November 25 at Noon PT/1 p.m. MT on ESPNU. Fans can also listen live on New Mexico’s flagship station 770 KKOB. Robert Portnoy will give you the play-by-play alongside Lobo great Hunter Greene.