Dent’s Historic Night Highlights 100-81 Win over A&M-Corpus Christi
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team remained unbeaten on the season with a 100-81 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday night at The Pit. The Lobos (3-0) reached the century mark for the first time in nearly a year while the Islanders (1-2) suffered their second loss of the season.
The Lobos were led by Donovan Dent’s historic night, becoming the first player in program history to have a 25-point/10 assist game with no turnovers. It was the fifth overall 25/10 game in UNM history, the first since Kendall Williams had 29 points and 10 assists against UAB in the 2013 Charleston Classic. It was Dent’s third career 10 assist/no turnover game, setting a new UNM record, breaking the previous mark of two by Marlon Parmer and Darrell McGee.
Kayde Dotson scored a career-high 18 points off the bench as the Lobos had five double-figure scorers. Tru Washington scored 15 points, Mustapha Amzil had 12 points and Nelly Junior Joseph finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, just missing another double-double. Atiki Ally Atiki had nine points, five rebounds and a career-high five blocks off the bench.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game remained close early, with the score tied 9-9 at the first media timeout. The Lobos would use a 17-2 run to take a 24-11 lead at the midway point of the half. The lead would grow to 33-14 with 8:00 left in the half after a 20-3 New Mexico run. UNM made 10 straight field goal attempts to hold a 39-19 lead with 6:40 left in the first half. The Islanders chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 41-27 with 2:55 left in the half before the Lobos took a 49-34 advantage into the break. Dent had 12 points and five assists to lead New Mexico in the first half.
In the second half, A&M-Corpus Christi trimmed the margin to 51-42 over the first two-and-a-half minutes. The Lobos would use a 10-0 run to push the lead to 66-45 with 12:55 to go before the Islanders answered with an 8-0 run to get within 13 with 11:30 to play. A 7-0 Lobo run made the score 76-55 with 9:00 to play. New Mexico led by as many as 20 in the final two minutes before closing out the 19-point victory.
LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos had 15 steals, marking the first time since 1990-91 that UNM had double-digit steals in each of the first three games of the season
• UNM has led by double digits in each of its last 33 victories, dating back to 2022-23
• Dent is the first Mountain West player to have a 25 point/10 assist/0 turnover game in nine seasons (Fresno State’s Marvelle Harris at UNM in 2015-16)
• UNM forced 22 turnovers, marking the second time in the Pitino era the Lobos have forced at least 20 turnovers in consecutive games (last season vs. Santa Clara and at New Mexico State)
QUOTABLE
“It was a good win for our guys. I thought they were ready to go. When you have a big win, like UCLA, everyone is telling them how great they are. Then you have another big game against St. John’s coming up. I thought the mental approach was terrific to handle their business against a team in Corpus Christi that played well at Purdue. Donovan passed the ball well and Kayde and Atiki were great off the bench. I loved their approach today.” – Richard Pitino
UP NEXT
The Lobos will travel to New York this weekend for a Sunday matchup with No. 22 St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. Game time is noon ET (10 am MT) and the game will air on FS1.