ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team (6-2) stayed undefeated at home with a win over the Northern Iowa Panthers (6-3), 76-57, Saturday in WisePies Arena.
“We were very fortunate to beat a really good basketball team,” said head coach Craig Neal. “They’re a good team. They are going to beat a lot of teams. I’ve got a lot of respect for Ben (Jacobson), I spent a lot of time with him, competing against each other when we were at Iowa and also in the summers on the Nike trip. I have a lot of respect for his program. There’s a reason why he’s been there ten years and he’s going to be there probably ten more years.
“We got off to a bad start, down 7-1, I think our guys really buckled down and guarded them. I think we were able to guard them at a high level. I thought our 3-point defense has been tremendous, they are really good at that, and I think zone took them out of their game plan. All in all, it’s hard to turn them over 15 times and we were able to do that and hold them to 57, so I’m really happy with the way our team played and I like my team. I say it every time but they are growing up and getting better.”
The Lobos were led by Elijah Brown, who posted team-highs with 25 points and seven rebounds. He shot 9-for-15 from the floor and added five free throws. Tim Williams totaled 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting with six points and two assists. Cullen Neal logged a team-best five assists, while Sam Logwood matched Brown’s rebound count of seven, matching his career-high. Logwood also scored six points on 2-for-3 shooting.
The win put the Lobos at 5-0 inside WisePies Arena for the first time since the 2012-13 season, a year in which the Lobos won both the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles. The win also gave head coach Craig Neal his first 5-0 home start as the leader of the Lobos. He’ll be looking to match his best nine-game overall start as a head coach on Wednesday.
The first half was a seesaw affair, in which the Lobos grabbed control down the stretch. The home team started the game 0-for-6 from the floor, allowing UNI to take a 7-1 lead in the opening four minutes. The Lobos wasted no time eliminating the deficit, going on an 8-0 run to retake the lead.
The two teams swapped the advantage several times before halftime, with neither squad leading by more than one field goal until the final minute of the first half. New Mexico caught fire down the stretch, draining seven of the last eight shots in the first half. The hot shooting pushed the Lobos to an 8-0 run to enter halftime up, 35-27.
The Panthers made a run at the start of the second half and cut the deficit to three points within the opening two minutes of the period. However, on two occasions in which it became a one possession game, the Lobos dumped the ball into the paint and earned momentum-killing buckets from Williams and Obij Aget.
The Lobos went back up by eight points with 14:06 on a corner 3-pointer from Brown. Backup point guard Jordan Hunter entered the game in the second half and hit two big 3-pointers, the first of which gave UNM their first double-digit lead at 49-38 with 11:29 remaining. The Lobos never trailed by more than nine points from that point forward.
New Mexico ended the game on a 14-5 run over the last four minutes. Hunter’s second 3-pointer put the Lobos up by 19 points, the final margin and the largest lead of the game.
The Lobos shot 50 percent even (27-for-54) for the game and 37.5 percent (6-for-16) from 3-point range. The Panthers finished the game at 44 percent, shooting 22-for-50. UNI shot 24 percent (6-for-25) from deep, making them the fourth straight opponent that has been held to under 30 percent shooting from outside by the Lobos.
Aget finished the game with eight points on 3-for-4 shooting. He also pulled down four boards, two on offense. Hunter’s six points were complimented by the 5-11 guard’s first career block. Joe Furstinger (five points), Anthony Mathis (three) and Xavier Adams (two) were efficient off the bench, combining to shoot 4-for-6 from the floor.
The Lobos will continue their three-game home stand on Wednesday, in the second game of the Rio Grande Rivalry, hosting New Mexico State at 7 p.m. in WisePies Arena.
(12/12/2015) MBB v. UNI