LOGAN, Utah – The New Mexico men’s basketball team dropped its regular season finale, falling at Utah State 94-90 on Saturday afternoon at the Smith Spectrum. The Lobos (22-9) finish the regular season in third place in the Mountain West at 13-7, while the Aggies (25-6, 15-5 MW) clinched the outright regular season title.
Jake Hall led New Mexico with a UNM freshman record 32 points, tying his UNM freshman record with seven three-pointers. Tajavis Miller tied a season high with 16 points, shooting 5-of-6 from deep. Tomislav Buljan had his 14th double-double of the season with 11 points and 13 rebounds, while Uriah Tenette had 14 points and a career-high seven assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Aggies used an early 8-0 run to take a 10-2 lead after three minutes of action and pushed the margin to 13-4 with 15:30 left. Utah State took a 22-10 lead with 10:45 left and held a 29-18 lead with 7:45 to go before UNM used a 7-0 run to trim the margin to 31-28 with 5:15 to play. The Aggies would push the margin to 35-28 with 4:45 left before UNM capped the half with a 7-0 run to take a 43-42 lead into halftime. Hall had 19 first-half points to lead the Lobos.
In the second half, the Aggies opened on a 12-2 run to take a 54-45 lead over the opening four minutes. The Lobos closed the margin to 64-62 with 11:00 to play before USU led 67-64 at the midway point. After the Aggies pushed the margin to 77-68 with 6:00 left, UNM cut the margin to 79-74 with 4:30 to play. The Lobos cut the lead to 88-85 with 30 seconds left after back-to-back triples by Miller, and 92-90 after Tenette made three free throws with 7.1 to go. But Utah State would hold on for the 94-90 win.
LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos made double-digit threes for the 14th time this season
• Eighth game this season when all three Lobo freshmen (Hall, Buljan, Tenette) scored in double figures in the same game
• Hall set the UNM freshman season scoring record, now with 506 points, breaking the previous record of 484 by Kenny Thomas in 1995-96
• Hall broke the UNM single-game freshman scoring record with 32 points, breaking the previous record of 31 by Alex Kirk against CSU Bakersfield in 2010-11
• Hall tied the Mountain West freshman record with his 17th straight double-figure game, tying the record set by UNLV’s Anthony Bennett in 2012-13
• Hall tied the Mountain West freshman record with six 20-point games in conference play (Desmar Jackson of Wyoming, Brandon McCoy of UNLV, Koby McEwen of Utah State)
• Hall tied the UNM freshman record with seven 3-pointers (he has three of the four 7-three games in UNM freshman history)
• Hall finished Mountain West play with 350 points, setting a new conference record for points by a freshman
• Hall finished Mountain West play with 66 threes, tying the UNM single-season record for threes in a Mountain West season (Anthony Mathis had 66 threes during the 2017-18 Mountain West season)
• Hall tied the UNM school record with his eighth game of the season with at least five threes (also accomplished by Ruben Douglas in 2002-03, Kevin Henry in 1998-99 and Marlow White in 1993-94)
• Buljan tied the Mountain West freshman record with 10 double-doubles in conference play (tying San Diego State’s Kahwi Leonard)
• Buljan had his nation-leading 14th game this season with at least five offensive rebounds
QUOTABLE
“I thought we did a great job all season of putting us in this position where we could win a title on the final day. I thought we fought and gave a great effort tonight, but we just came up short. We would have liked to make a few more plays and those guys are disappointed, but we now get to have a few days to get ready for the tournament.” – Eric Olen
UP NEXT
The Lobos will be the No. 3 seed for next week’s Mountain West Tournament and will begin play on Thursday night in the final quarterfinal of the day at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Lobos Edged by Utah State 94-90 in Regular Season Finale
