Lobos Down UTEP 74-70 in Charity Exhibition
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M – The New Mexico men’s basketball team concluded its preseason schedule Wednesday night with a 74-70 charity exhibition victory over UTEP at The Pit. The game benefitted the UNM Children’s Hospital and marked just the Lobos’ second ever exhibition against a Division I opponent.
Donovan Dent led the Lobos with 19 points and five assists, while Tru Washington added 17 points and four steals. Nelly Junior Joseph had seven points to go along with 16 rebounds and five blocks (both of which would have tied his UNM career highs had it had been a regular season game).
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos jumped out to an early 11-0 lead after back-to-back triples by Washington on the first two possessions of the game, followed by a three from Dent and jumper from Joseph. The Miners responded with a 8-0 run to cut the margin to 13-10 with 13:45 left in the half. UTEP took its first lead, 18-17, at the midway point of the half before the teams traded the lead for several minutes. The Lobos would take a 29-22 lead with 4:15 left in the half before leading 34-28 at halftime. Dent and Washington each scored 10 points to lead UNM in the first half.
In the second half, the Lobos pushed the lead to 46-35 over the first four minutes. UTEP used a 6-0 run to cut the margin to 54-50 at the midway point of the half, but the Lobos answered to extend the lead to 59-50 with 8:00 to go. New Mexico took its largest lead of the night, 66-52, with 5:00 to play with a 7-0 run, capped by a transition alley-oop from Dent to Washington. The Miners used an 13-2 run to get within two at 70-68 with 1:36 to go and made it 72-70 with 30 seconds to play. Dent was fouled with 24.9 to go and he made 2-of-2 to push the lead back to four before the Lobos closed out the win with a defensive stop.
LOBO NOTES
• Crowd of 10,359 marked the largest attendance for a Lobo exhibition since the 2018-19 season
• The Lobos had a +26 rebounding advantage and their 56 rebounds were more than any game last season
• All 12 Lobos who played in the game scored
• All five Lobo starters (Dent, Washington, Filip Borovicanin, Mustapha Amzil, Joseph) had a plus/minus of +15 or better
• New Mexico had 25 turnovers against a UTEP team that led the nation in turnovers forced per game last season
QUOTABLE
“I love the rule change to allow these exhibitions. It makes everybody better. UTEP’s better and we are better. No disrespect to the D-2’s and D-3’s, but this was a real game. I figured it would be close. They are aggressive and they aren’t scared to foul. They had 27 fouls, but they just want to turn you over. I loved our rebounding. Certainly we need to do better than 25 turnovers because it’s hard to win that way. A game like that was really good for us.” – Richard Pitino
UP NEXT
The Lobos open the regular season on Monday, Nov. 4, when they host Nicholls. Game time at The Pit is 7:00 p.m. Season tickets and single-game tickets for UNM basketball are on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.