SAN JOSE, Calif. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team climbed into a share of first place in the Mountain West with a 90-80 victory at San Jose State on Saturday night at the Provident Event Center. The Lobos (18-4, 9-2 MW) won their fourth straight to move into a share of first place with Utah State and San Diego State, while handing the Spartans (6-16, 1-10 MW) their fifth straight loss.
Jake Hall led New Mexico with a career-high 27 points, tying his UNM freshman record with seven three-pointers (7-9 from deep). Tomislav Buljan had his 11th double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Uriah Tenette and Deyton Albury each had 14 points for the Lobos.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos jumped out to an early 8-2 lead over the first four minutes of action and held a 15-11 lead with 12:00 left. UNM led 20-12 at the midway point of the half and held a 28-22 lead with 5:45 to go as Hall scored 16 of the Lobos’ first 28 points. UNM led by eight with 1:00 left in the half before taking a 41-35 lead into the break as Hall had a game-high 16 points in the first half.
In the second half, after San Jose State cut the lead to three with a triple on the opening possession, an 8-0 run gave the Lobos their first double-digit lead at 49-38 with 17:45 left. The UNM lead grew to 12 at 53-41 with 16:15 left before a 7-0 SJSU run cut the lead to five with 14:25 left. The Lobos led 65-55 at the midway point of the half before taking a 70-57 lead with 8:30 to go. The lead was 77-69 with 4:00 left before a JT Rock basket-and-one pushed the lead back into double digits. The Spartans closed to nine in the final minute before Hall sealed the win with his seventh triple of the night. UNM would close out the 10-point win in the final minute.
LOBO NOTES
• The three freshmen (Hall, Buljan, Tenette) all scored in double figures in just one game over the first 18 contests (Nebraska), but tonight marked the fourth straight game it has happened
• UNM made 11 threes, their fifth straight game with double-digit triples, its longest since a six-game streak to open the 2018-19 season
• Hall’s seven threes tied the UNM freshman record (Hall vs. Nebraska this season and Kevin Henry vs. Holy Cross in 1997-98), and was the second-most threes ever by a freshman in a Mountain West game (Sean Morris of Colorado State had nine at UNLV in 2005)
• Hall had his seventh 20-point game of the season, extending his UNM freshman record
• Hall’s 16 first half points tied the most in a first half by a Lobo this season (Hall at Air Force, Buljan at UNLV)
• Hall’s seven games with at least five threes is a UNM freshman record and one off the overall school record of eight (Ruben Douglas in 2002-03, Kevin Henry in 1998-99, Marlow White in 1993-94)
• Buljan extended his UNM freshman record to five straight double-doubles
QUOTABLE
“I want to watch the film before I make any sweeping declarations, but it wasn’t our best performance defensively for sure. I thought San Jose State had a lot to do with that and they made a lot of difficult shots. We made some mistakes that they made us pay for. We could be better. We had a good performance offensively start to finish and it was good enough on the road to get a win.” – Eric Olen
UP NEXT
New Mexico returns home on Wednesday to host Utah State in a battle of Mountain West co-leaders. Game time is 9:00 pm and the game will air on FS1. Tickets are on sale at GoLobos.com/tickets.