ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team concluded its preseason schedule Thursday night with a 64-54 exhibition victory over Northern Arizona at The Pit. The Lobos never trailed on the night as 10 of the 11 players to see action scored.
Antonio Chol led New Mexico with 20 points, highlighted by five 3-pointers. Jake Hall added 12 points off the bench, while Chris Howell added eight points and a game-high five assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos jumped out to a 9-0 lead, on nine straight points from Chol, over the opening three-and-a-half minutes of the game. The lead grew to 16-2 with 13:30 remaining in the half before the Lumberjacks used an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 16-10 with 8:30 left in the half. UNM pushed the advantage back to double figures, 27-14, with 2:50 to play with an 8-0 run. The Lobos took a 29-19 lead into halftime as Chol led UNM with 12 first half points.
In the second half, NAU cut the margin to 37-31 over the opening five minutes. UNM’s 7-0 run pushed the margin to 44-31 with 12:30 left to play as the Lobos led 47-35 at the midway point of the half. The Lobos led by 15, 50-35, before an 8-0 NAU run cut the lead to 50-43 with 6:45 left. UNM led 57-46 with 4:00 to play before closing out the 10-point victory.
LOBO NOTES
• New Mexico had 13 assists on 17 field goals
• The Lobos improved to 68-7 all-time in exhibitions
QUOTABLE
“It was good to get our first rep in The Pit. There’s lots to work on, on both sides of the ball. We will watch the film and find the areas to address. With a lot of new guys, we are trying to understand how we can put guys in position to be successful. Not everyone plays the way that we play, so these exhibitions are really valuable. We have just about learned all we can learn about ourselves in practice, but now we need to see how we matchup against other teams with different schemes and personnel. I would love for us to hit the ground running and be really sharp in our execution, but unfortunately we aren’t quite there yet. We are seeing progress and we are excited to get the regular season started next week.” – Eric Olen
UP NEXT
The Lobos open the regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 5, by hosting East Texas A&M. 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.
Lobos Down Northern Arizona 64-54 in Preseason Finale
