One game out of the top spot in the conference, the UNM men’s basketball team has just four games remaining in the season — so the Lobos can’t afford to relax.
After collecting back-to-back wins, the cherry and silver will hit the road for a match at Fresno State on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs are sitting in sixth place in the conference standings with a 15-11 overall record and an even 7-7 record in the Mountain West.
“They’ve had an up-and-down year,” said UNM head coach Craig Neal. “They are very dangerous. They’ve been playing very well at home, so it will be a tough challenge for us.”
The Bulldogs are coming off a 77-59 victory over San Jose State, a team that two weeks ago handed the Lobos (16-10, 9-5 MW) a 78-68 loss in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Prior to the San Jose State victory, Fresno State was riding a three-game losing streak.
Saturday’s game will be the second meeting this season between the Bulldogs and the Lobos. The teams opened up Mountain West play back on Dec. 28 where New Mexico claimed a 78-73 win at WisePies Arena.
Although he came off the bench, junior guard Elijah Brown led the team with 19 points. Senior forward Tim Williams helped out with 18 points, but won’t be available to contribute this time around.
Williams is still out of the lineup nursing a stress reaction on his left foot and will be in a walking boot until at least the end of the month when he gets another examination.
The senior has missed four games due to his injured foot, but the Lobos have been able to weather the storm, going 3-1 in those matches.
Brown has led the team with double figures and a total of 90 points during that span, an average of 22.5 points per contest.
He has gotten help from several other Lobos, including senior center Obij Aget, freshman guard/forward Damien Jefferson and junior guard/forward Sam Logwood. Each of them has logged double digits in two out of the last four games to help pick up the slack.
But the Lobo offense has only had two players, Brown and Williams, average double-digit figures for the season. Brown has a season average of 19.1 points per game and Williams has put up 17.9.
Fresno State has four consistent scorers. At the top is redshirt junior guard Jaron Hopkins with 13.4 points per game. He has made 49 percent of his field goal attempts, which ranks fourth in the conference. New Mexico’s Williams is second at 58 percent.
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New Mexico will likely have to watch Hopkins carefully, as he also finds himself in the top five in steals per game. His teammate Jahmel Taylor and UNM’s Brown are on that list.
Fresno State won’t be a friendly place to play at, as the Bulldogs have only seen two losses at Save Mart Center this season.
Neal admitted that beating the Bulldogs this time around won’t be as easy as before. But he said the Lobos welcome the challenge.
“It’s one of those steps in the journey that we have to take to get to where we want to go,” the head coach said. “It will be a good challenge for us to see where we are.”
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She mainly covers men’s soccer and basketball. She can be reached at sports @dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
