From the Albuquerque Journal
Lobo basketball doesn’t get to be picky about wins.
Not after the past eight seasons and the longest postseason drought in the program’s modern era since opening the Pit more than a half century ago.
So improving to 10-0 with a late-night, come-from-behind 67-64 victory over an experienced San Francisco squad certainly allowed the hundreds of Lobo fans who were on hand in the Michelob Ultra Arena to spill out into the casino floor at Mandalay Bay with smiles on their faces.
But UNM head coach Richard Pitino projected more relief than elation after the game.
“I wasn’t happy with a lot, honestly,” said Pitino. “I was happy probably with the last 3-, 4-minutes. And we played our best basketball at the end which was great, but we did not play like we had played the first nine (games).”
But, thanks to the veteran guard combo of Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. down the stretch, the Lobos may not have played like they did in their first nine games, but the end result was the same. UNM improved to 10-0 for the first time in a decade (the 2012-13 team started 12-0) and remains one of the country’s seven remaining undefeated teams out of 363 Division I programs.
San Francisco dropped to 8-3 and was held to just 34.5 percent shooting in the second half. including just 27.2% over their final 22 shot attempts.
At one point in the first half, they hit seven consecutive attempts capped by a Tyrell Roberts 3-pointer that gave them their largest lead at 38-26.
The Lobos would score the final five of the half, but trailed at the break for the first time this season, 38-31.
After trailing for 32 minutes and 13 seconds, and never quite solving the problem that was two 7-foot-2 centers for the Dons clogging the paint and taking away the Lobos’ bread and butter offense of attacking the rim, House and Mashburn Jr. combined to score 21 of UNM’s final 23 points, including a Mashburn midrange jumper with 1:46 to give the Lobos their first lead (65-64) since the 13:49 mark of the first half.
But UNM head coach Richard Pitino projected more relief than elation after the game.
“I wasn’t happy with a lot, honestly,” said Pitino. “I was happy probably with the last 3-, 4-minutes. And we played our best basketball at the end which was great, but we did not play like we had played the first nine (games).”
San Francisco dropped to 8-3 and was held to just 34.5 percent shooting in the second half. including just 27.2% over their final 22 shot attempts.
At one point in the first half, they hit seven consecutive attempts capped by a Tyrell Roberts 3-pointer that gave them their largest lead at 38-26.
The Lobos would score the final five of the half, but trailed at the break for the first time this season, 38-31.
After trailing for 32 minutes and 13 seconds, and never quite solving the problem that was two 7-foot-2 centers for the Dons clogging the paint and taking away the Lobos’ bread and butter offense of attacking the rim, House and Mashburn Jr. combined to score 21 of UNM’s final 23 points, including a Mashburn midrange jumper with 1:46 to give the Lobos their first lead (65-64) since the 13:49 mark of the first half.
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