Lobos Open 2-0 With 90-83 Win over Iona
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY | POST-GAME NOTES | POST-GAME QUOTES
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two Lobos racked up double-doubles on Tuesday night as The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team earned a 90-83 win over the visiting Iona Gaels to start the 2018-19 season 2-0. Junior Corey Manigault and redshirt-sophomore Vance Jackson led the Lobos with 20 and 18 points, respectively while collecting 10 and 12 boards apiece.
The victory marks the 16th straight season in which the Lobos came away with the win in their home opener.
After a slow start offensively, seniors Anthony Mathis and Dane Kuiper closed the game, combining for the thrilling final 10 points, including a pair of fast-break layups, to keep the Lobos on top throughout the final three minutes.
“The depth that we have, the way we spread our minutes and the style that we play allowed us to break away at the end and get a big win,” head coach Paul Weir said. “It was a good basketball team that we beat, and we have come a long way in the last 12 months. We have not arrived and we have a lot of work to do the next few days in order to continue to get better, but just to get a win against a good basketball team early in the year shows our progression as a program.”
The Lobos held the lead for 24:35 of the game that had nine lead changes and five ties. On the night, UNM outshot Iona from the floor 50.9 – 40.0 percent and 40.0 – 34.6 percent from behind the arc. Five Lobos scored in double figures including Manigault (20), Jackson (18), Mathis (14), redshirt-sophomore Keith McGee (13) and sophomore Vladimir Pinchuk (10).
Pinchuk’s 10 points went along with seven rebounds, one steal, three assists and two blocks in a new career-high 30 minutes.
With just 7:05 left in the game and the Lobos down by one, 72-71, Manigault poked the ball out of the hands of Iona’s Isaiah Still, raced to the other end of the court unguarded and slammed a crowd-pleasing dunk to put the Lobos back on top for the final time, 73-72.
(Slow-mo that steal in the beginning!)
Corey Manigault with the steal and the dunk!
He’s up to 18 points in the game and UNM retakes the lead at 73-72. pic.twitter.com/487dyKF9Fc
— Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) November 14, 2018
When the Gaels reduced the Lobo lead back to one, 75-74, sophomore Makuach Maluach sunk a dagger of a three at 5:28 that put the Lobos back up by four, 78-74. Iona was able to take a five-point lead to just two, 80-78, at the 2:59 mark on a Still three before Mathis nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the night to put the Lobos back up by five, 83-78, and spark a Lobo offensive surge through the final minutes.
The Gaels would get no closer than three as Kuiper drilled his lone three of the night – a big one – with 1:52 left, 86-80, followed by a pair of fast-break layups from Mathis and Kuiper to keep the crowd of over 10,000 fans roaring through the end.
The Lobos forced 15 turnovers and posted five blocks, including two from Pinchuk. UNM also collected 19 assists to just 15 for Iona.
UNM went down by as much as five points in the back-and-forth first half that featured a 10-0 Iona run at the 13:43 mark. UNM battled back and responded with a 11-0 run with just 5:30 left in the first half to head into the locker room tied 39-39.
The Lobos came out of the halftime break with the first six points to take a commanding 45-39 lead before Iona whittled it back down to one with 16:20 on the clock.
Overall the teams finished relatively even in points off of turnovers (15-14 UNM), points in the paint (28 apiece), second-chance points (13-12 UNM), fast-break points (31-29 Iona) and bench points (29-20 UNM).
The Lobos return to action on Saturday, November 17 when they take on in-state rival New Mexico State for a 4 p.m. clash in Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit. The game will be the Lobos’ Nike N7 contest featuring the highly-anticipated turquoise uniforms and will be televised on AT&T SportsNet.