FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball snapped it three-game losing skid by defeating Colorado State Saturday afternoon, 84-71 in Moby Arena. The Lobos are now 10-8 on the season and 3-3 in the Mountain West.
“They did everything I asked them to do today,” said head coach Craig Neal. “We have to finish out games and we did that tonight. I liked the way they fought back, and they followed the game plan.”
The Lobos had four players finish in double figures. Elijah Brown led the squad with 25 points. He was 6-for-12 from the field, which included a 4-of-6 effort from the three. He also was 9-of-11 from the foul line. Tim Williams finished the game with 15 points on 7-of-13 from the field. Dane Kuiper and Damien Jefferson both added 10 points each.
“We got a lot of contributions tonight from our guys,” Neal added.
Going into the game, Brown needed 16 points to reach a milestone of 1,000 points as a Lobo. With a three at 15:40, Brown reached the feat and became the 34th player in Lobo history to do so.
Colorado State took their only lead in the first at the 16:55 mark and the rest of the way it was all Lobo basketball. The Lobos went up by seven after a three from Brown with 7:32 left in the first half.
They maintained the lead and pushed it to eight after a Damien Jefferson layup. A four point play by Brown with 1:01 left in the half, gave the Lobos a 12-point lead, 44-32. CSU made two free throws to finish off the half, but Lobos led 44-34.
The second half proved to be much different than the previous three second halves. The Lobos started the first eight minutes with a 17-10 run. They pushed to their largest lead 21 with 9:54 left to play.
The Lobos maintained their double-digit lead the rest of the way. CSU would only get as close as 13 with 4:16 left and with 45 seconds left.
New Mexico held CSU to 35.8 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from the three.
“I thought there was a lot more urgency to close out shots,” said Neal.
For the game, the Lobos outrebounded the Rams 39-29. They also beat them off the bench 26-8, in the paint 32-16 and in fast break points 10-2. The Lobos shot 55.6 percent (30-of-54) from the field, 66.7 percent (6-of-9) from the three and 66.7 percent (18-of-27) from the foul line.
New Mexico is on the road for the second straight game Tuesday, heading to MW leading Boise State. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. MT and will air on ESPNU.