LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team (10-7, 3-1 MW) dropped its first Mountain West Conference game this season on the road Tuesday against the UNLV Rebels (10-7, 1-3 MW), 86-74.
The Lobos were led offensively by Elijah Brown, who recorded his first double-double as a Lobo, with 24 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. He shot 10-for-20 from the floor. Cullen Neal scored 14 points, collected three rebounds and dished out three assists, tying Joe Furstinger for the team lead. Neal shot 8-for-10 from the foul line, tying his best production from the line this year. Furstinger’s three assists tied a career-high.
“I thought they came out loose and pretty aggressive and I think we got a little bit out of whack,” said head coach Craig Neal. “We played a little bit faster in the halfcourt than we should have and took some bad shots early. But I also thought we took some shots that we could make, we just didn’t make them. We didn’t guard like are capable of guarding. I told them, if we had played like we did the last 10 minutes the entire game, it’s a different ball game.
“You have to give them credit, they did a nice job guarding us. But I did think our guys kept fighting and played hard.”
The Lobos fell behind early in the first half, making one of their first six shot attempts, but kept the Rebels in reach for the entire period. The home team had several opportunities to build a big lead throughout the first, but Neal and Brown each hit a timely 3-pointer to bring the Lobos within a pair of possessions.
New Mexico entered halftime down by six points, 34-28. The Lobos had a tough first half shooting, but were successful on defense, holding the Rebels to 34.2 percent (13-for-38) shooting and only a pair of 3-pointers.
UNLV opened up the second half on a 9-4 run, putting them up by 13 points for the first time in the game. The Lobos scored the next four points, but the Rebels scored 16 of the next 22 points to lead 64-43 with 9:38 remaining. The Lobos would go down by as much as 22, but kept fighting down the stretch.
The Lobos cut the deficit to 12 points with 3:49 remaining. The Rebels fended off the road team with a quick 6-1 run, putting them out of reach with less than three minutes remaining.
Both the Lobos and the Rebels shot an even 40 percent on the evening. New Mexico shot 24-for-60 while UNLV shot 26-for-65. The Lobos shot 46.2 percent (6-for-13) from deep, while the Rebels shot 23.3 percent (7-for-30). New Mexico won the rebounding battle, 43-39. There were 61 combined free throw attempts Tuesday, with the Lobos shooting 20-for-28 and the Rebels shooting 27-for-33.
Sam Logwood tied his career-high of 12 points to go along with six rebounds, three on offense. Obij Aget recorded 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting with eight rebounds. Tim Williams logged eight points and six rebounds. Xavier Adams scored three points and logged two blocks for the second time in three games.
The Lobos will look to improve their record to 4-1 in league play Saturday when they host Wyoming at 2 p.m. in WisePies Arena.
(1/13/2016) MBB at UNLV