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Kicking off a three-game exhibition tour in Australia Monday, the New Mexico men’s basketball team overcame an 11-point second-half deficit Monday to beat the Sydney Kings 87-85 at Bankstown Basketball Stadium in Sydney, according to a press release.
Guard Kendall Williams led the Lobos in scoring with 24 points, draining three 3-pointers and nine of his 11 foul shots. Forward Cameron Bairstow, playing in his native country, added another 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the field, with a team-high six rebounds.
Junior center Alex Kirk and junior guard Hugh Greenwood, also from Australia, reached double figures as well with 19 points and 13 points, respectively.
“I was happy … great effort,” head coach Craig Neal said in the release. “We didn’t play great defense in the first half, we gave up 48 points. I thought (the) guys really came together in the second half.”
As a team, UNM shot 51.7 percent from the field (31 of 60), 28.6 percent from 3-point range (6 of 21) and 57.6 percent from the foul line (19 of 33).
James Harvey scored a team-high 27 points for the Kings, a member of Australia’s National Basketball League. A.J. Ogilvy finished with 22 points, followed by Brad Hill and Kevin White each with 12 points.
The Kings were 45.5 percent from the field (25 of 55), 36 percent on 3-pointers (7 of 19) and 82.4 percent from the foul line (28 of 34).
The game tipped off at 7 p.m. local time, or 3 a.m. Tuesday morning Mountain Time.
The Lobos continue their international tour Thursday with a game in Melbourne against the South East Australia Basketball League All-Stars. Tipoff for that game is 7 p.m. local time. Bairstow will be at a tryout for the Australian national team and will miss Thursday’s game.
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