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Shorthanded Lobos Run Out of Energy at UNLV

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — For the first time this season, The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team (15-5, 4-3 MW) suffered its second-straight road loss with a 99-78 showing at UNLV (11-9, 6-1 MW) on Saturday night. While the Lobos led for the majority of the first half, the Runnin’ Rebels jumped ahead in the final minute with a halftime lead that they did not again relinquish.

The five Lobo starters played over 30 minutes of the 40-minute game including 35 or more from four of them: senior Corey Manigault (35), redshirt-sophomore Vante Hendrix (35), junior Makuach Maluach (37) and redshirt-senior JaQuan Lyle (39).

“Unfortunately, we ran out of gas,” head coach Paul Weir said. “We turned the ball over 12 times in the second half, three times in the first half. I thought our guys actually competed and played hard and rallied and responded to where we were at, but you’ve got to give it to UNLV, it just was a better team – it is the better team right now.”

Despite the lengthy minutes and obvious wearing down of the Lobo personnel, UNM was behind by single digits with just 4:26 left on the clock. Redshirt-junior Zane Martin made a pair of free throws to make it an eight-point game, 76-68 before the Runnin’ Rebels followed with a 9-0 run to extend the UNLV lead to 17, 85-68.

Lyle hit a pair of free throws and a three, broken up by a UNLV dunk, to make it a 14-point game with 2:27 left in a last-ditch effort at some energy from the Lobo squad. The energy burst wasn’t quite enough however, as UNLV closed on a 12-5 run over the final 2:27 for the 21-point Runnin’ Rebel win.

UNLV collected six dunks in the second half as the Lobo defense grew visibly tired, including three in the final two and a half minutes.

Despite the struggles of the Lobo defense on the night, the Lobo offense hit 10 3-pointers for just the second time this season en route to its 78 points. Lyle led the charge with four on the night followed by Hendrix (3-7). Manigault even registered two from deep, marking a new career-high for the big man.

The final three came from freshman Emmanuel Kuac, who saw 13 minutes on the court, which he registered just 12 seconds after entering the contest.

The Lobos were led on the night by Lyle, who registered his seventh 20+ point game of the season with an even 20 points. He has scored at least 20 in three of the Lobos’ last five games.

Finishing just behind Lyle was Manigault who posted his second double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 boards. All five starters finished in double figures.

UNLV was led by a massive effort from sophomore Bryce Hamilton who put up a career-high 35 points going 14-for-19 from the floor. Another outstanding performance on the night was Runnin’ Rebel sophomore Marvin Coleman who posted a triple-double with 11 points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds.

Coleman’s triple-double marks the first in the Mountain West since 2016.

On the night, the Lobos were outshot 50.7 – 41.3 percent from the floor but fired at a clip of 38.5 percent from behind the arc compared to 30.8 percent for UNLV.

UNM was outrebounded 47-31 including 15-8 in offensive boards while turning the ball over 15 times compared to 10 for the Runnin’ Rebels.

The Lobos are set to return to action on Tuesday, Jan. 21 when they host San José State inside Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit on AT&T SportsNet at 8 p.m. MT.

Tuesday’s game will mark the Lobos “Suits & Sneakers” game in which UNM will support the BeLIVe campaign for the Children’s Cancer Fund of NM by selling T-shirts to match the Lobo squad prior to and on gameday. Visit GoLobos.com/BeLIVe or GoLobos.com/BeLIVeShirt for more information.