ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Junior Elijah Brown hit a jumper with 5.8 seconds left on the clock to help the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team to its fifth-straight home victory in WisePies Arena – The Pit, a 78-77 win over the Lobos’ second oldest rival, UTEP on Wednesday night. The Lobos are now 6-3 on the season and 5-0 inside The Pit.
“We had a good player make a big shot,” said UNM head coach Craig Neal. “It’s a one-point win, but it’s a win and we’ll take it. We just have to get better.”
The Lobos tied the game up 74-74 after a Sam Logwood jumper with 1:02 left on the clock. UTEP sunk a three to take a 77-74 lead with 30 seconds left to play. The Lobos then called their final timeout to draw up a play. After the timeout, Jordan Hunter drove into the paint and scored to bring the Lobos within one, 77-76.
Xavier Adams fouled a Miner with 18 seconds left on the clock and UTEP missed with Anthony Mathis picking up the rebound. Brown ended up with the ball and pulled up to hit the game-winner. UTEP tried to hit a three in the final seconds, but it was no good.
“Xavier made some big time plays,” Neal said. “If it weren’t for him coming in late and making those tough nose plays, I don’t think we would have gotten over the hump, but we finally got over it and won a close one.”
Brown finished with a season-high 25 points, scoring 16 in the first half. He finished 8-for-13 from the field, 3-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-11 from the foul line. He also led the Lobos with six rebounds. Logwood and Hunter were the other Lobos in double digits. Logwood finished with 11 points and a career-high six assists while Hunter finished with 10 points and six assists. Off the bench, Connor MacDougall added nine points.
The Lobos came out with a lot of energy, starting the game off with a 15-2 run into the first media time. They held UTEP to just nine points in the first eight minutes and went up by as much as 21 with 12:27 left in the first half.
UTEP made it an interesting game though as the Miners worked their way back with their three-point offense. They hit six in the first half and continued to push in the second half with nine. The Miners took their first lead of the game with 9:41 left in the game but the Lobos continued to attacked, drawing fouls. The Lobos hit nine straight free throws which tied the game up at 72-72 and led the Lobos to the final minute of the game.
“We gave them way too many threes,” said Neal. “We have to continue to work on that.”
On the game, the Lobos shot 56.8 percent (25-44) from the field, 50 percent (7-14) from the three and 65.6 percent (21-32) from the free-throw line. They outrebounded the Miners 31-26 and had the advantage in the paint 24-16.
New Mexico is on the road Saturday, traveling to Las Cruces for the second game against Rio Grande Rival New Mexico State. The game will be available on ESPN3 and tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. MT. Fans can also follow along on 770 KKOB and via live stats at Lobos.statbroadcast.com.