ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team started Mountain West play with an 88-65 win over San Jose State on Saturday night at The Pit. The Lobos (10-2, 1-0 MW) extended their win streak to seven, while the Spartans fell to 5-7 (0-1 MW).
Milos Vicentic scored a season-high 19 points off the bench to lead the Lobos. Jake Hall had 18 points, including 12 in the second half. JT Rock and Uriah Tenette each scored 11 points, while Deyton Albury had 10 points and a season-high seven assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos opened the game on a 6-0 run over the opening three minutes of play. The Spartans answered with a run of their own to take a 9-7 lead with 15:00 left. UNM responded to take a 20-14 lead at the midway point of the half before holding a 28-21 lead with 5:40 to play. An 8-0 Lobo run to end the half pushed the lead to double digits at 41-28. Vicentic had 12 points, already a season high, to lead UNM in the first half.
In the second half, the Lobo lead grew to 14 in the opening minutes before a 9-0 Spartan run cut the margin to 44-39 with 15:30 left. UNM pushed the lead back to 55-43 with 12:50 left before holding a 61-50 advantage at the midway point. UNM would lead by 13 with 7:45 left before using a season-best 17-0 run to push the margin to 85-55 with 2:15 to go. The Lobos led by as many as 31 over the final two minutes before closing out the 88-65 win.
LOBO NOTES
• UNM improved to 17-10 all-time in Mountain West openers (12-0 when opening the conference season at home)
• New Mexico won its 19th straight home game (T-5th longest active streak in the nation)
• UNM won its 11th straight conference home game, the second-longest conference home win streak in program history (20 straight home WAC wins from 1996-98)
• New Mexico became the first FBS program in three seasons to have an undefeated calendar year at home in both football and men’s basketball (Tennessee – 2022)
• The Lobos shot 83.3% (20-24) from 2-point range, their highest 2-point FG% since Feb. 28, 2018 (shot 27-31 for 87.1% inside the arc in a 108-87 win at Colorado State)
• Vicentic became the 11th different Lobo to score in double figures this season, the most Lobos in a season to record a double figure game since 11 in 2018-19
• Vicentic became the seventh different player to lead the Lobos in scoring this season
• Regular starters Tomislav Buljan and Chris Howell missed the game due to injury
• JT Rock made his first career start
• Crowd of 12,785 was the largest at The Pit for a San Jose State game since 2015-16
QUOTABLE
“It was a really good performance and a great way to start the conference. A lot of guys contributed and we got some great minutes off the bench. Milos and Tajavis specifically played well and took advantage of the opportunity. They haven’t had a lot of minutes recently, so credit to them for being ready. It’s always nice to start conference play with a win and now we get to enjoy the holidays.” – Eric Olen
UP NEXT
The Lobos will take a 10-day holiday break after the game before returning to action on Dec. 30 with a trip to Boise State. UNM returns home on Jan. 3 to host Wyoming, with tickets on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.