EL PASO, TEXAS — Senior Sam Logwood of The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team led the Lobos with 22 points on Saturday night for his third game this season registering 20+, but it wasn’t enough to earn UNM the win as the Lobos fell to UTEP 88-76 in Don Haskins Center.
Midway through the second half, the Lobos (3-5) got a 14-point Miner lead down to five (61-56) on a 13-4 run before UTEP (2-6) rallied back with an 8-0 run of its own to reclaim the double-digit lead, push it to 15 (71-56) and hold out for the win.
The Lobos knocked down a pair of 3-pointers from juniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis in the final 45 seconds to reduce the Miner lead to nine (84-75), but UNM was forced to foul and UTEP’s free throws sealed the Lobos’ fate.
After discussing the Lobos’ lackluster play in the first half, head coach Paul Weir spoke about the second-half spark that led UNM to outscore the Miners 45-43 over the final 20 minutes.
“Unfortunately, it was a halftime speech that got us to where we needed to be,” coach Weir said. “But just like the Maryland game, it was just too late to come back from 15 on the road, it just doesn’t happen every time. We’d like it to, but it just doesn’t.
“I don’t think I’ll think offense was the problem… I think our inability to play defense is getting very troubling. Tonight we just couldn’t stop those guys, it’s concerning and we just need to improve.”
As a team, UNM shot 37.5 percent from the floor compared to 53.7 percent for the Miners however, despite the lopsided overall percentages both teams fired at nearly the same rate from three. UNM went 11-of-31 from behind the arc (35.5 percent) while UTEP was 9-of-24 (37.5 percent). UNM has registered at least 10 3-pointers in five of its seven games.
The Lobos entered the game ranked third in the nation in free throw percentage, but had their lowest performance of the season from the stripe, going 23-for-35 (65.7 percent).
Defensively, the Lobos outrebounded UTEP 37-33 and turned them over 14 times, while committing 14 turnovers of their own. The Miners tallied 16 points off of UNM’s turnovers compared to 11 for the Lobos.
Not only did Logwood register his fifth game scoring in double figures this season, but Mathis tallied 13 points for his sixth double-digit game and senior Antino Jackson scored 10 points for his third.
Logwood also added seven rebounds to go along with junior Troy Simons’ eight and freshman Vladimir Pinchuk’s seven.
The Lobos will return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 6 when they travel to take on Colorado at 7 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Network.