Dec. 29, 2005
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
G Chris Oliver (Radford)
G Jarrett Howell (UT-Arlington)
G Ryan Kersten (New Mexico)
F Jermaine Griffin (UT-Arlington)
F David Chiotti (New Mexico) – MVP
TEAM
-New Mexico won for the fifth time in its last 6 games and extended its home winning streak to 18, the 4th-longest in school history…the last loss was more than a year ago, an
81-74 setback to No. 5 Wake Forest on Dec. 22, 2004…it’s New Mexico’s most successful string since taking a school-record 41 straight from Feb. 10, 1996 to Feb. 26, 1998.
-UNM improved to 70-12 in the Lobo Invitational and won the championship game for the 29th time in 41 tournaments…New Mexico has won the tournament title 9 of the last 11 years.
-The Lobos improved to 4-0 all-time against the Mavericks.
-UT-Arlington shot just 22.2% (4-18) from 3-point range, matching the second-lowest percentage by a Lobo opponent this season
-The Mavericks matched their season-low with 17 first half points…New Mexico is now 8-1 this season and 33-2 over the past 2 years when leading at the break.
-UNM won the rebounding battle for the 5th time this season – all Lobo victories.
INDIVIDUAL
-Senior forward David Chiotti recorded his 4th double-double of the season, 8th of his career and 3rd in the past 4 games with 11 points and 11 rebounds…he also matched a season-high with 2 blocks…Chiotti is averaging 10.0 rebounds over the last 4 games after pulling down an average of 6.3 in the first 9 games of the year…he now has
521 rebounds in his career, good for 22nd on the UNM all-time list…he passed Darryl Minniefield (519) tonight.
-Senior guard Kris Collins set a career-high with 7 assists against one turnover in 26 minutes at the point…it’s the most minutes he has seen in six games
-Freshman guard Ryan Kersten scored a career-high with 16 points on career-highs of 6 FGs and 11 FG attempts…Kersten was 2-5 from 3-point range tonight and is now 13-25 (52%) from beyond the arc over the past 6 games, including 12-22
(55%) in his last 5 games at The Pit…Kersten is the first Lobo freshman to earn a spot on the Lobo Invitational all-tournament team since Marlon Parmer in 1999.