USAFA, Colo. – The New Mexico basketball team recorded its largest margin of victory in a Mountain West road game with a 91-49 win at Air Force on Saturday afternoon at Clune Arena. The Lobos (13-3, 4-1 MW) won its third straight and 10th of the last 11 games, while the Falcons (3-13, 0-5 MW) lost their ninth straight.
Jake Hall led New Mexico with 24 points, tying his career high, while also grabbing a career-high seven rebounds. It was Hall’s fifth 20-point game of the season, setting a new UNM freshman record. Tajavis Miller added a season-high 16 points off the bench, while Deyton Albury had 13 points and Uriah Tenette scored 10 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Falcons took an early 5-0 lead before UNM used a 16-0 run to take an 16-5 lead after eight minutes of action. The Lobos led 21-11 at the midway point of the half and pushed the advantage to 32-13 with 6:30 left in the half with a 9-0 run. The lead reached 20 at 37-17 with 5:00 to play and grew to 25 in the final minute with a late 8-0 run before UNM took a 45-22 advantage into the break. Hall had 16 first-half points to lead New Mexico.
In the second half, the Falcons again scored the first five points of the half before UNM pushed the margin to 53-29 with 16:20 left. The Lobos extended the margin to 63-35 with 12:00 left and held a 71-38 lead at the midway point during a 14-0 run to pushed the margin to 39. The Lobos would lead by 44 at 91-47 with 1:30 left before closing out the 42-point win.
LOBO NOTES
• The 42-point margin was UNM’s largest in a Mountain West road game, second-largest overall in a MW game (won 100-55 over Wyoming in The Pit in 2008) and T-2nd largest ever in a road game against a Division I opponent (tied with a 90-48 win at BYU in 1997 and trailing only a 99-48 win at Hawaii in 1965)
• It was the second-largest road margin of victory ever in the Mountain West Conference, trailing only a 52-point win (106-54) by Boise State at San Jose State in 2020-21
• The Lobos’ 23-point halftime lead was their largest in a Mountain West road game since 2018 (led by 26 at Colorado State)
• Hall had his fifth 20-point game, setting a new UNM freshman record (had been tied with four with Kenny Thomas, Charles Smith and Phil Smith)
• Hall had five threes to give him 46 this season, now third most by a UNM freshman and just nine behind Kendall Williams’ record of 55 in 2011
• Tomislav Buljan had 14 rebounds (most by any player in a Mountain West game this season) and his fourth straight double-figure rebound game
• Hall’s 16 first-half points were the most by a Lobo this season
• UNM set a season high with 16 steals
QUOTABLE
“I thought we did a nice job today. We were disruptive defensively and mostly made good decisions with the basketball. It is easy to get loose when you get that big of a lead, but our guys did a good job of staying focused and closing it out. That’s what good basketball teams do. They don’t play to the scoreboard, they do their job on every possession and our guys are doing a good job of learning to do that.” – Eric Olen
UP NEXT
The Lobos return home Tuesday to host Grand Canyon for the first conference matchup between the schools. Game time at The Pit is 7 p.m. and the game will air on Altitude2, stream for free on the Mountain West Network and air on the Lobo Radio Network.