The UNM men’s basketball team took a 92-72 loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies on Thanksgiving in the first round of the Wooden Legacy in California.
The loss dropped the Lobos (3-1) into consolation bracket play, where they will face off against Cal State Northridge on Friday afternoon. New Mexico will play again Sunday regardless of the result, but hopes it can improve seeding with a win.
The Lobos finished their first road match of the season with a field goal percentage of 45, while the Hokies shot 50 percent.
Tim Williams, the Mountain West Player of the Week, had team-highs in both points and rebounds, posting 19 and 11, respectively, for his third double-double of the season.
Robinson led the Hokies with 22 points on 5-of-11 shooting, followed closely by Hill, who had 18 points after going 6-of-11 from the floor.
A dunk by seven-feet-one-inch Obij Aget opened up the scoring to give the Lobos an early 2-0 lead. New Mexico led for a good amount of the first half, but the Hokies never trailed by more than four.
Virginia Tech took a 23-21 lead after guard Ahmed Hill completed a three-point play. But the Lobos tied the game back up with a pair of free throws by Xavier Adams at 23-23 with 8:28 on the clock.
Both teams went cold for several minutes until Virginia Tech’s Zach LeDay drilled a 3-pointer to take a 26-23 lead at the 5:57 mark.The Hokies would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.
New Mexico shot fairly well in the game, but were hurt by the run its opponent made to close the first half and stellar shooting in the second.
The first half ended with Virginia Tech (4-0) leading 36-44. The Hokies kept the momentum going, shooting as high as 67 percent in the second half to pull away. The lead swelled to 24 points on a couple of occasions late in the game.
Earlier in the day, Texas A&M (3-1) took down Cal State Northridge (2-3) by a score of 95-73.
The Aggies shot 53.1 percent from the field, and built a huge lead over the Matadors, the largest being a 32 point deficit in the second half.
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DJ Hogg led Texas A&M with 25 points on 9-of-2 shooting, while Michael Warren led Cal State Northridge with 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
On Friday, the Matadors will be looking to get back to .500 on the season by taking down the Lobos. Kendall Smith and Tavrion Dawson are both averaging 15.4 points per game.
New Mexico and Cal State Northridge are scheduled to face off at 1 p.m. on ESPNU.
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.
