Box Score | Post-Game Notes | Post-Game Quotes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team returned to .500 in Mountain West play on Saturday night with an 80-47 victory over San José State in Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit. The Lobos improve to 7-10, 2-2 in the league while the Spartans fall to 3-12, 0-4 MW.
Freshman Makuach Maluach led the Lobos in scoring for the first time in his young career, tallying 15 points while going 6-for-9 from the floor, 2-for-2 from behind the arc. He was one of five Lobos to score in double figures including junior Chris McNeal (12), junior Anthony Mathis (12), senior Antino Jackson (11) and senior Joe Furstinger (10).
The Lobos have had five or more players score in double digits in five games this season.
Furstinger just missed another double-double, posting 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. He did, however, post his sixth straight game scoring in double figures, collect a career-best five steals, drilling his third career 3-pointer and adding four assists and two blocks to his stat line.
Mathis and junior Jachai Simmons each notched a career-high in rebounds, bringing down six and four, respectively.
As a team, the Lobos outshot the Spartans 46.7 percent to 31.8 percent and went 13-for-36 from behind the arc (36.1 percent) compared to 3-for-11 (27.3 percent) for SJSU. The last time the Lobos held an opponent to less than 35 percent from the floor was on March 4, 2017 against San Diego State (31.5 percent).
“I thought we played much better defense and were able to get some stops, particularly at the start of both halves,” head coach Paul Weir said. “We were a little more contained and a little more control-oriented.
“On the defensive end, we worked really hard to keep the ball out of the post.”
The Lobos entered Saturday night’s contest ranked 15th in the nation in both turnover margin (4.6) and turnovers forced (17.56) and did not disappoint in the categories against SJSU. UNM forced 20 turnovers and committed just six, a season-low for the Lobos. UNM accumulated 28 points off of turnovers compared to just one point for SJSU.
“Generating turnovers is great we’ve done a great job of that this year,” Weir said. “It’s completing it on the other end and getting points out of (turnovers) that we need. Tonight was probably one of the first nights that we were able to do that almost all season.”
The Spartans’ 47 points marks a season low for a Lobo opponent. SJSU tallied 23 points in the first half and 24 in the second, marking the second- and third-lowest allowed by the Lobos in a half this season.
The Lobos got out to as much as a 12-point lead, 18-6, in just the first 8:13, posting an 11-0 run over 1:24 that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Jackson and another from Maluach.
SJSU responded with a 7-0 run of their own to pull the game back within five,18-10 and again 20-15 with 7:47 left in the first half.
From there, the Lobos took off and never looked back, getting back out to a double-digit lead with 3:29 left in the half, never relinquishing it.
McNeal put the Lobos up by 16 at the half, 39-23, and the Lobos continued to build in the second, allowing the Spartans no closer than 20 points over the final 16:54 of the game. UNM’s largest lead of the game, 35, came with 37 seconds left on the clock on a dunk by Simmons, assisted by redshirt-junior Mike Mondragon. Mondragon also scored his first career points in his two minutes on the floor.
The Lobos will remain at home as they take on Wyoming on Wednesday, Jan. 10 in Dreamstyle Arena at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network.