The UNM men's basketball team notched its fourth-straight conference win after toppling TCU 64-48 on Saturday at The Pit.
The win puts the Lobos in third place in the Mountain West Conference standings.
They improved to 20-6 overall and 7-4 in the conference.
UNM head coach Steve Alford said his team has a chance to make some more noise in the MWC after Saturday's solid performance.
"I'm very excited about this win. It puts us in a position to have a lot of fun here in the next three or four weeks," he said. "We're in third place. We've got 20 wins. The guys have just done a tremendous job."
UNM let an 18-point lead slip away in the first encounter with the Horned Frogs this season. This time, however, the Lobos came out of the locker room in the second half leading 26-23 and wouldn't trail again.
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At the start of the second half, the Lobos sprinted out to a 22-point lead, thanks to a 19-0 run in the first seven minutes of the half. The UNM defense was a big contributor, forcing the Horned Frogs to commit 23 turnovers to the Lobos' 12.
Senior J.R. Giddens led all scorers with 25 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.
Giddens said that even though the offense wasn't as potent as it has been lately, the Lobos accomplished what they wanted to on defense.
"Our offense was off tonight, but our defense was there," he said. "We held them below our goal of 65 points."
The Lobos are now 18-0 when holding their opponents under 70 points.
Freshman Jonathan Wills pitched in nine points and was 3-3 from the free-throw line, where the Lobos didn't have much success.
UNM was just 17-of-32 at the foul line.
The win marks the 21st time in school history that the Lobos have had a 20-win season, and it is Alford's ninth as a Division I head coach.
Although he is happy with his team's recent success and performance this season, there are still some kinks in their system, Alford said.
"There are still some things we've got to continue to work on," he said. "We just have to keep getting better. We are not a perfect team, and we are not going to win every game. We have won games here in the last week and a half by 40 or 45 and then 10 on the road. It is not going to be like that all the time, and it wasn't tonight."
Men's basketball at Air Force
Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
