Head coach Craig Neal often talks about always moving forward and not focusing on the past. His Lobos are doing a better job in that regard.
Following back-to-back losses at San Diego State and Utah State, New Mexico responded and shut down San Jose State’s offense in a 74-58 victory. The defense held the Spartans to a 30 percent shooting night from the field.
Winning on the road is not as easy as some think it is, Neal said, which makes it key to win games inside New Mexico’s home arena.
“I just think we had two bad ones and now we’ve got to win home games,” said Neal, who’s team improved to 11-2 in home games this year. “Then you’ve got to try to steal some more on the road later in the year. Then we’ve got to finish.”
Neal said he was especially happy to win one in February. Last year, UNM lost all its games in the month of February.
The crowd showed its support for Lobo guard Cullen Neal throughout the game. Craig Neal said Thursday that his son had been receiving threats, but the crowd roared for Cullen during his pregame introduction with several fans holding “Go Cullen” signs throughout the arena.
UNM (15-10, 8-4 MW) kept its hold on second place in the Mountain West with its Saturday win and Fresno State’s overtime loss at Nevada. The Lobos remain a half game ahead of Boise State, who beat Wyoming.
Last time the team dropped two games in a row, UNM bounced back against the same SJSU squad. The Lobos fell to UNLV and Wyoming in consecutive games but then captured an 83-64 victory at San Jose.
Although there were only a few days between the Utah State loss and the San Jose State game, guard Elijah Brown said the team already put the defeat behind them. It is an element the Lobos are improving upon, he said, especially as the regular season’s end approaches.
“It’s time to stop saying ‘my bad’ and ‘we’ll get better’ and this and that,” said Brown, who scored a game-high 21 points. “We have to really strap up and beat the teams we’re supposed to beat and play our game every day.”
The Lobos maintained unbeaten against the Spartans in 11 meetings, including seven in Albuquerque.
UNM had given up 80 points to both SDSU and USU in the most recent losses, so Neal made it a goal to limit San Jose State to 65 points.
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“I thought it we could stay under 65, it would be good,” he said. “Try to give them some goals. Try to be more goal-oriented in the sense that let them think about something to strive for.”
The Lobos broke open a close first half with 12 straight points as the break neared. Ahead 25-24, UNM held San Diego State scoreless for five and a half minutes as guard Elijah Brown kicked off the rally with a driving score. He added a 3-pointer over that span, and Guard Anthony Mathis chipped in a triple as well.
We felt like, for the most part, we were getting stops on the defensive end. We just weren’t really making shots,” Brown said. “Then, as you can see, the 3 started to fall for us ... and that got us going.”
Cody Schwartz stopped the SJSU drought with a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left in the half, but UNM entered halftime up 35-27.
In the second half, UNM allowed only two back-to-back scores for San Jose State. The Lobos also benefitted from solid second-half foul shooting.
In fact, for a five-minute span, 19 of 25 points scored by either team came from the charity stripe. From the 8:42 mark to 3:09, UNM made 10 foul shots in 13 attempts as the Spartans shot 9 of 12. Only forward Tim Williams scored a field goal in that time.
UNM finished the game under its foul shooting goal of 75 percent and settled for a 24-for-35 night (68.8 percent clip). Yet Neal stressed the importance for his team to get to the line for free throws.
“The aggressiveness and the way we can drive it, the way we can post it, I think it just helps us,” he said. “Any time you can get to the line 30 to 35 times a game, it just gives you that many opportunities for free points.”
Brown’s 21 points came despite a 5-of-15 shooting effort. He made up for his poor shooting efficiency by sinking nine of his 10 foul shots. Williams added 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds, while center Obij Aget netted 11 points.
UNM was 41.5 percent from the field (22 of 53).
Forward Frank Rogers was SJSU’s only double-digit scorer with 12 points.
J.R. Oppenheim is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s basketball and women’s soccer. Contact him at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JROppenheim.
