The Lobos began the season with a win, and they are now on the hunt for another home victory Monday night at WisePies Arena.
New Mexico (1-0) is hosting the Houston Baptist Huskies on a night when they will wear custom turquoise jerseys in honor of Native-American Heritage Month.
The Huskies (0-1) dropped their season opener to Texas Tech, with senior Atif Russell and his 16 points leading the way. The Red Raiders held a 45-36 first half lead in the game, and the Huskies were not able to come from behind and lost 93-67.
During their season opener against Idaho State (0-1), the Lobos also found themselves behind during the first half, as they trailed 38-32. But after a few adjustments, they finished the second half strong to a final score of 81-70.
Sam Logwood led the team with 20 points, Tim Williams followed closely with 18 and Elijah Brown, who had only been part of five team practices and missed the two exhibition matches, recorded 14.
Head coach Craig Neal, although happy with the win, said the game helped him see more of what his team is lacking.
“I want to see improvement,” he said. “I liked our defense in the second half, we held them 32 points. I didn’t like in in the first half where we let them shoot 50 percent and score 38.”
Monday’s game will be just the second time the teams have squared off against each other.
The first occasion was under former New Mexico head coach Steve Alford in 2012. . The Lobos took a 98-61 victory over the Huskies, with former Lobo Tony Snell leading the team with 18 points.
Houston Baptist finished last season with a .500 record of 17-17 and went 10-8 in conference. The Huskies strength was at home where they finished 12-3. Their results on the road were not nearly as impressive, as they only won four out of their 15 matchups away from home.
This year, the Huskies were picked to finish fifth in the Southland Conference. They are led by head coach Ron Cottrell, who has been with the program for 26 years and holds a career record of 452-351.
Neal, who after Friday’s result is now 4-0 in season openers as head coach at UNM, said he wants to see improvement every game and that Monday’s match will be a good opportunity to gauge it.
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“I’d like to see a little bit crisper ball movement. I think we hold the ball too much, we dribble too much, and we have to get some ball reversals,” he said. “Our guards are only going to succeed if we get post touches and kind of play inside out. That’s what I’ll look for on Monday.”
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.
