BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY | POST-GAME NOTES | POST-GAME QUOTES
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team earned its third straight victory on Wednesday night to kick off Mountain West play with a 29-point win over the visiting Air Force Falcons in Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit.
Senior Joe Furstinger registered his third straight double-double, the first Lobo to achieve the feat since the 2015-16 season. With his 12 points and 12 rebounds, Furstinger was one of six Lobos to score in double figures on the night including junior Jachai Simmons who captured his first double-digit game of the season with 15 points.
Simmons led the Lobos (6-8, 1-0 MW) offensively on the evening, followed by junior Dane Kuiper (13), junior Anthony Mathis (11) and seniors Sam Logwood (10) and Antino Jackson (10).
Jackson nearly hit his second point-assist double-double of the season, adding nine assists to his 10 points.
Both UNM and Air Force (6-7, 0-1 MW) opened their first conference game of the season a bit lackluster offensively as the score was 2-0 Air Force nearly five minutes into the game until Furstinger scored the Lobos’ first point on a free throw at the 15:18 mark. Head coach Paul Weir attributed the early score to outstanding Lobo defense.
“That first four minutes of the game might have been my favorite four minutes of our season,” Weir said. “I think it was like 2-0 and all we were doing was playing defense, and we didn’t care about where the ball was going in. It was going to be a war, and I loved that.”
The Lobos began pouring on the points however and over the next eight minutes jumped out to a 13-point lead on a 12-0 run. The run was kicked off by back-to-back Kuiper three-pointers and capped with an exciting Simmons-Chris McNeal-Simmons steal and alley-oop as well as a Furstinger dunk.
On the alley-oop, Simmons and McNeal demonstrated teamwork at its finest as Simmons snatched the ball on defense, quickly passed to McNeal and the pair rushed down court. McNeal dished back to Simmons for the fast-break alley-oop that made the crowd of 10,000 shriek.
Jackson hit a three with three seconds left in the first half to put the Lobos up 16, 36-20 at the break. The last time UNM held a team to less than 20 points in the first half was two seasons ago on Jan. 9, 2016 when the Lobos held Utah State to 18.
The Lobos opened the second half on a 10-3 run to get out to a 22-point lead with 15:07 left to play and extended the lead to 28 on back-to-back threes from Simmons with 4:47 to go.
The largest Lobo lead of the night was 31 with 39 seconds left.
UNM will hit the road for a pair of back-to-back conference matchups. The Lobos will face the team picked to finish first in the league this season, Nevada, on Saturday before traveling to Boise State on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Saturday’s game at Nevada will be broadcast on AT&T SportsNet while Wednesday will be on ESPN3.
Extra Notes:
-As a team, the Lobos shot 50 percent from the field for just the second time this season. (The first was against Northern New Mexico – 64.7%)
-Jachai Simmons went 6-for-7 from the floor and 3-for-4 from behind the arc while tying his season-high three steals.
-The Lobo bench scored 58 points – equivalent to the entire Air Force roster.
-New Mexico committed just eight turnovers the entire game (season-best this year is seven).
-The Lobos forced 17 turnovers.