ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team (1-0) used a late second-half surge and a career-high 20 points from junior Sam Logwood to claim an 81-70 season-opening win over Idaho State Friday night in WisePies Arena – The Pit. The victory is the 14th straight season-opening win.
“I thought our guys did a good job in the second half,” said head coach Craig Neal. “I thought we were very productive in the second half. We’ll continue to work. We’ve got a game Monday so we will go forward from here.
“All in all, that was a good win. That was a tough opening night and it’s probably one of the better teams we’ve played on opening night since I’ve been here. Coach Evans does a great job, and I knew that was going to be a tough task because of their backcourt.”
Along with Logwood, the Lobos received a combined 32 points from Tim Williams and Elijah Brown with 18 and 14 points, respectively. Logwood was 7-for-10 from the field and perfect, 5-for-5 from the foul line. Williams also finished with a team-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. He was 7-for-11 from the field and 4-for-7 from the foul line. Brown finished 5-for-13 from the field with four assists.
“I think that’s what we need out of Sam,” said Neal. “I thought he was a little tentative in the first half, but I told him to just go play the game, and I think he did that.”
In the second half, the Lobos shot 62.1 percent (18-for-29). They were on a 7-0 run at the 14:40 mark to take a 48-46 lead over the Bengals. The Lobos would retake the lead for good after Brown’s two at the 13:24 mark. The Lobos offense kept pushing forward as they extended their lead by as much as 12 with 6:34 left to play.
The Lobo defense held Idaho State to a scoring drought from the 8:20 mark to the 5:38 mark, which allowed them to take a 71-61 lead. The rest of the way the Lobos only allowed nine points and scored 10 of their own to finish off the Bengals.
“We played more possessions of man in the second half, and we tried to change it up coming out of timeouts or free throws. I thought we did a nice job in the second half with man-to-man defense, which we have to hang our hat on if we’re going to be highly successful.”
It wasn’t quite what the Lobos were expecting in the first as they shot 33.3 percent (10-for-30) but they did just enough to gain momentum going into the second half after sophomore Anthony Mathis came in for a four-point play with a minute left. That four-point play brought the Lobos within six, trailing the Bengals 38-32 at halftime.
Among the other Lobos, sophomore Jordan Hunter finished with a career-high in assists with eight and rebounds with six. Connor MacDougall also finished with six rebounds.
The Lobos outrebounded the Bengals 39-29 (18 offensive boards) and scored 28 points off the Bengals 20 turnovers. A total of 19 points came from the UNM bench, Xavier Adams, Hunter and MacDougall finished with six each.
Coach Neal is now 4-0 in season openers as head coach. He sported the storied cherry blazer on opening night and is now 9-3 in his career when wearing it.
The Lobos will look to their next game, as they take on Houston Baptist Monday night for their annual Nike N7 game. Tip off time is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ROOT Sports. There will be a jersey auction during the game. More details to follow.
NOTE: Tonight’s game was “Heroes Night”, as the Lobos celebrated the men and women who have served and continue to serve for our country. The Lobos held a jersey auction and raised $3,082 for the Wounded Warriors and the UNM Army ROTC program.