Lobos Improve to 8-1 in Mountain West with 95-67 Win over Fresno State
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team led wire-to-wire for the second straight game, downing Fresno State 95-67 Monday afternoon in The Pit. The Lobos (16-4, 8-1 MW) remain in first place in the Mountain West, while the Bulldogs fall to 5-14 (1-7 MW).
Donovan Dent had 20 points and nine assists, with no turnovers, to lead New Mexico. Nelly Junior Joseph had 10 points and 15 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. Mustapha Amzil had 15 points, Tru Washington scored 13 points and Jovan Milicevic added 11 points off the bench for his first career Mountain West double-figure game.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos jumped out to a 16-0 lead over the game’s opening five minutes. The lead grew to 25-4 as the Bulldogs called their second timeout of the afternoon with 12:00 left. Fresno State used a 13-0 run, tying the largest allowed by UNM this season, to cut the margin to 25-17 with 7:00 left. The Lobos answered with a 10-0 run to make the score 35-17 with 4:30 to go and grew the margin to 43-25 with 2:00 to play. UNM led 45-27 at the break as Washington led the Lobos with 13 first-half points.
In the second half, the Lobos pushed the margin to 57-31 over the opening four minutes. UNM grew the margin to 29 before a 6-0 Bulldog run cut the margin to 62-39 with 12:00 to go. The Lobos would lead 67-39 at the midway point of the half and 80-45 with 7:30 to go. After Fresno State used an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 80-53 and later an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 86-61 with 3:20 to play. The Lobos would push the lead back to 30 in the final minute before closing out the 95-67 win.
LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos are 8-1 to start Mountain West play for the second time in history (2013-14)
• UNM never trailed in consecutive games for the first time since last season (at San Jose State, home vs. Nevada)
• Dent became the ninth Lobo in history to reach the 400 career assist milestone
• Dent’s 20-point, nine-assist, no-turnover performance was the fifth such game in Division I this season and Dent becomes the only player to accomplish the feat multiple times (Dent-2, Mark Sears [Alabama], Braden Smith [Purdue], Sebastian Thomas [Rhode Island] – 1 each)
• New Mexico swept the season series with Fresno State for the first time since 2012-13
QUOTABLE
“It was a great win. We anticipated they would play us all zone, like they did against Air Force and a lot against Nevada. We had a late game Friday, so we really only had one day of practice to prepare for the zone. I thought our guys were ready to go and I thought we played unselfish basketball. We knew we were going to have to make shots against their defense.” – Richard Pitino
UP NEXT
The Lobos will play their next two games on the road, visiting UNLV on Jan. 25 and Utah State on Feb. 1 before returning home to host Colorado State on Feb. 5.