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Lobos Top Wyoming 79-65 on the Road

BOX SCORE (PDF)

LARAMIE, Wyo. — For the third time in the last four contests, The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team (9-2, 2-0 MW) held its opponent to less than 30 points in the first half on Saturday afternoon and used the 11-point halftime advantage to claim a 14-point victory over the Wyoming Cowboys (3-7, 0-2 MW) on Saturday afternoon. UNM topped Wyoming 79-65 as redshirt-senior Carlton Bragg Jr. registered his third double-double of the season, his second in the last three games.

Senior Corey Manigault led the Lobo scoring effort with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds while redshirt-junior JJ Caldwell nearly posted a triple-double on the day with eight points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Redshirt-senior JaQuan Lyle collected 13 points while junior Makuach Maluach added 12.
 
Bragg, who collected a double-double at Arena-Auditorium last season as well (22 points, 20 rebounds), posted 15 points and 15 boards on the day to go along with three blocks and one steal.
 
Saturday’s win marks the seventh time in the last eight seasons that the Lobos have kicked off conference play 2-0 and the second time in the last three meetings that UNM has earned a victory at Wyoming. UNM improves to 25-42 inside Arena-Auditorium with Saturday’s win.
 
The Lobos outshot the Cowboys 48.3 percent to 37.5 percent from the floor while tying their season-high 47 rebounds and limiting Wyoming to just 29 boards, the third least the Lobos have allowed this season.
 
UNM kicked the contest off with the first basket from Bragg before extending the early lead to five, 8-3, on a Maluach layup at the 15:12 mark.
 
Wyoming tied it up with 9:02 left in the first half 10-10 before the Lobos used a 7-0 run, sparked by a Maluach layup to make it 17-10 Lobos with 7:39 left in the half. UNM extended its lead to 10 on a clutch three from sophomore Tavian Percy to make it 22-12 UNM.
 

 
Just 2:32 later, Manigault slammed an alley-oop from Caldwell at the 2:47 mark to make it a 15-point game, 32-17.
 

 
The Cowboys closed the first half on a 4-0 run for the 32-21 halftime score.
 
Bragg had collected a game-high nine rebounds at the halfway mark while Manigault led all scorers on the court with nine, followed by Maluach with eight.
 
The Lobos maintained the double-digit lead until the 15:11 mark when redshirt-sophomore and Saturday’s leading scorer Hunter Maldonado registered a three with 14:55 on the clock to make it a nine-point game, 46-37.
 
The rally was short-lived, however. Nearly five minutes later, Lobo junior Vance Jackson, who finished last season averaging 13.1 points per game but has struggled so far this season to heat up from the floor, nailed a three to give UNM a 17-point advantage on the back of a 6-0 Lobo run that included a three from redshirt-junior Zane Martin.
 


The Lobos continued to pile on the points, getting out to as much as a 20-point lead with just 4:04 left (71-51) before the Cowboys started chipping away for the 14-point final, 79-65.
 
Wyoming was led by Maldonado who registered 27 points going 10-for-18 from the floor, 4-for-5 from three and 3-for-5 from the stripe. He also tied for the Cowboys’ most rebounds with six.
 
The Lobos return to non-conference play on Saturday, Dec. 14 when they host the NM State Aggies in game two of the 2019-20 Rio Grande Rivalry. UNM topped NM State in Las Cruces on Nov. 21 by one, 78-77. The Lobos and the Aggies tip off on AT&T SportsNet inside Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit at 5 p.m. Saturday.