Box Score (PDF) | Post-Game Notes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team opened up Mountain West action with a 78-73 win over Fresno State Wednesday night inside WisePies Arena. The Lobos improve to 8-5 on the season and 1-0 in the Mountain West.
The victory was the seventh straight win inside The Pit this season, the eighth straight MW opening win inside The Pit and sixth straight MW opening win for the Lobos.
“I thought this was a really good game for all of our guys,” said head coach Craig Neal. “It was a really good indication about the fight we have as a group and the effort they play with. Many guys were able to come back in and get us our first win in the conference.”
Elijah Brown led the Lobos in the scoring column, finishing with 19 points. He was 14-for-14 from the foul line which is third best in program history. He also added three assists. Tim Williams put together 18 points, a team-leading seven rebounds and a season-high, team-leading four assists. He shot 7-for-15 from the field.
It was the first time the Lobos had four players in double-digits since the Cal State Northridge game at the Wooden Legacy Classic. Along with Brown and Williams, Obij Aget and Dane Kuiper both finished with at least 10 points, 12 and 10 respectively. Jalen Harris finished with nine points and three assists.
The game started out even between the two teams. Aget scored six of the Lobos first eight points, bringing the score to 10-8 in the Bulldogs favor. But after the first media timeout, the Lobos went on a 9-2 run to take a 17-12 lead. The Lobos pushed that run to 21-5 at the 8:22 mark after back-to-back threes from Kuiper. They would go up by as many as 14 points in the first half.
“I thought we did a lot better defensively. Our guys are getting there and we had good contributions. We need a little bit more assists than we did but we got to the line and made some shots.”
But the offense started to slow down for the Lobos with five minutes left in the half, as they did not have a field goal until the 18:45 mark in the second half. That field goal drought allowed Fresno State to work its way back into the game, making five of their last seven shots of the half and cutting the deficit to 36-34, Lobos.
Williams started the second half off with five straight points and the Lobos’ defense held Fresno State scoreless until the 17:07 mark. New Mexico went up by nine point with 11 minutes left to play but the Bulldogs tied the game up, 53-53, with eight minutes left.
Free throws were huge in the final five minutes of the game for the Lobos. They made 15 at the line which included 10 coming from Brown. Fresno State came within three with 13.4 seconds left but Brown put the game away at the foul line, making the final four for the Lobos.
“I think the best thing about our team is the way we’re shooting foul shots. It’s the only shot that’s not guarded and I want our guys to make them as much as they can.”
New Mexico outscored Fresno State 28-5 off the bench and 12-10 on second chance points. For the game, the Lobos shot 45.1 percent from the field, 30 percent from the 3-point line and 87.9 percent from the foul line.
The Lobos will look to take their momentum into another tough match up at San Diego State on Sunday. The game will be on CBS Sports Network and tip-off is set for 3 p.m. MT/2 p.m. PT.