Open Announce

No. 21 New Mexico Falls to UNLV 84-77 at a Sold Out Pit

by Steve Kirkland

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The No. 21 New Mexico men’s basketball team dropped its first home game of the season with an 84-77 loss to UNLV Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,424, the largest at The Pit since 2009. The Lobos (14-2, 2-2) had their 12-game home win streak snapped, while the Runnin’ Rebels (12-3, 1-2) recorded their second ranked win of the season.

Morris Udeze led New Mexico with 22 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Jamal Mashburn, Jr. scored 19 points and Jaelen House added 12 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos fed off the crowd early and opened the game on an 8-0 run over the first two minutes of play. UNM continued to lead and extended the advantage to 18-9 with 10:45 in the half. The lead was its largest at 26-14 with 8:00 in the half before foul trouble with the UNM guards allowed UNLV to close to 32-30 with 2:30 left to play. The Lobos continued to lead and took a 43-38 advantage into the break as House had 12 first-half points to lead UNM.

In the second half, the Rebels scored the first nine points to take the lead at 47-43 with 17:30 to go. UNLV extended the lead to eight at 63-55 with 9:40 to play before the Lobos closed the gap at 69-67 with 5:15 to play. UNM got within one at 72-71 with 3:00 to go, but a UNLV run made the score 78-71 with 2:00 to play. The Lobos got within three in the final minute, but couldn’t complete the comeback.

LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos had the same starting lineup for the 16th straight game to open the season
• It was just UNM’s seventh all-time loss at The Pit when nationally ranked (122-7)
• It was the first sellout at The Pit since the home finale in 2014-15
• Mashburn scored in double figures for the 37th consecutive game, the longest active streak in the Mountain West

QUOTABLE
“First and foremost, thank you to our amazing fans. I am disappointed that they have to walk out of here with a loss, but this rebuild process is going to go quicker and quicker if we keep having crowds like that. Credit to UNLV. They were terrific offensively and we were pretty poor defensively in the second half. They weathered the storm. We were close, but we just couldn’t quite close it out. You have to give UNLV credit, they went and got it.” – Richard Pitino

UP NEXT
The Lobos will host Summit League favorite Oral Roberts (13-3) Monday night in a recently scheduled non-conference matchup. The Golden Eagles have won 10 straight games, the fifth longest active win streak in the nation. Game time is 7 p.m. and tickets are on sale at GoLobos.com/tickets.