ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team dropped its contest to San Josè State Saturday inside WisePies Arena – The Pit, 78-68. The Lobos are now 14-10 on the season and 7-5 in the Mountain West.
“We just didn’t play very well tonight,” said head coach Craig Neal. “… As far as pace and getting up and down the court. We had some runs in us but it just didn’t seem like we were there.
“My job is to get those guys active and playing at a higher level and we’ll continue to work on that.”
Elijah Brown and Sam Logwood led the Lobos, combing for 40 points. Brown finished with 21 points and led the team in rebounds with eight. He was 6-of-18 from the field, 4-of-6 from the three and 5-of-6 from the foul line. Brown also led the team in assists with six. Logwood added 19 points and seven rebounds. He was 6-of-10 from the field, 2-of-2 from the three and 5-of-7 from the foul line.
The Lobos outscored San Josè State off the bench, 20-14. Fourteen of the Lobos 20 bench points came from Joe Furstinger and Jordan Hunter, each finishing with seven.
In the first half, the Lobos jumped out to a 10-4 lead into the first media timeout. In that span, the Lobos went on an 8-0 run, getting five from Brown. SJSU outscored the Lobos 9-4 in the next four minutes to bring the score to 14-11 Lobos.
The Spartans made five of their next seven to come within one, 20-19 at the 7:51 media timeout mark. In the final four minutes of the half, the Lobos finished out on a 10-7 run, but the game was tied 35-35.
“They (San Josè State) did a pretty good job of making shots, they shot over 50%,” added Neal. “That’s kind of been our problem all year and we gave them too many three point shots. There just wasn’t an urgency for our group to guard.”
The first part of the second half was pretty even as the score was tied twice in the first four minutes. The Lobos went on a 4-0 run, getting two’s from Logwood and Connor MacDougall. That run brought the Lobos with in one, 50-49, and forced a Spartan timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Spartans went on a 7-0 run to take a 57-49 lead. The Spartans led by as much as 12 with 5:39 left to play. The Lobos brought it within five at the 1:54 mark off a Damien Jefferson layup. But the Spartans took their lead to nine with 50 seconds left to play. The Lobos went to the fouling tactics in the final minute but couldn’t get the offense going.
“All in all, we just couldn’t get anything going” Neal said. “It wasn’t fluid enough like it was at UNLV.”
On the game, the Lobos shot 42.1 percent from the field, 43.8 percent from the three and 72.2 percent from the foul line. The Lobos finished with 14 turnovers which resulted in 23 Spartan points. The Lobos did outscore the Spartans on second chance points, 10-2.
The Lobos will look to rebound next week as they head to Air Force on Wednesday for the only contest against the Falcons in regular season. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. MT and will air on ROOT Sports.