It wasn’t the Lobos’ prettiest game—but they probably weren’t looking for “pretty”—as the men’s basketball team showed no mercy taking down the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions 83-43 on Saturday night.
Head coach Craig Neal said he felt good about the win and the effort his players showed.
“I thought our guys did a really good job at the start the game,” he said. “Arkansas-Pine Bluff has been on a long road trip so I don’t know if they had the greatest of energy, but it was good to see our guys come out and get several stops in a row.”
The game opened up with a turnover by Lobo junior Dane Kuiper. However, the guard/forward redeemed himself on the next possession by knocking down a 3-pointer to open the scoring.
The Golden Lions did not have a good start. They missed their first 14 shots and were staring at a 16 point deficit before forward Trent Steen finally put his team on the scoreboard over 11 minutes into the game at the 8:34 mark.
New Mexico didn’t shoot particularly well either, going just 36.8 percent from the floor, but dominated the first half thanks to Arkansas-Pine Bluff shooting an abysmal 12.5 percent.
The Golden Lions made just three field goals in the first half and trailed 31-11 at the break.
The last time UNM held an opponent to under 15 points during the first period of a match was in a 52-49 win over the Wyoming Cowboys on March 7, 2015.
In a sloppy first half in which both teams committed 16 turnovers, Tim Williams led the Lobos with 13 points, while the Steen had a team-high five points.
Neal said there were a lot of positives but also some negatives during the half.
“I don’t like the 16 first-half turnovers we had against a zone-oriented team,” he said. “I think our first group of starters was a little anxious, but then our other group came in and they didn’t have much pop.”
Williams opened up the second half on his way to a game-high 19 points, as New Mexico continued to grow its lead. Kuiper also chipped in as the duo accounted for the first four made field goals
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Senior center Obij Aget followed a layup with a slam dunk with 13:12 left in the game to extend the Lobo lead to 50-18.
The Lobos got plenty of contributions from other players, with the bench outscoring their opponents 38-11.
“I think our second half was better, we only had six turnovers,” Neal said. “I thought we got the ball moving and I thought Tim Williams was excellent. I thought Joe (Furstinger) played with a lot of energy and Dane Kuiper continued his good play.”
The Lobos enjoyed their largest lead of the night at 77-31 after Connor MacDougall sunk a pair of free throws. UNM went 92.5 percent as a team from the line, knocking down 37 of its 40 attempts.
Kuiper ended the night with 14 points and MacDougall had 10 to join Williams as the only Lobos to score in double figures.
For UAPB, Ghiavonni Robinson led the way with 12 points, followed closely by Steen with 11.
The Golden Lions finished with 26.3 percent shooting from the field and 70 percent from the free throw line.
“All in all I thought our guys gave a good effort,” Neal said. “We have to continue to try to get better. It was good for us to get a win.”
The win improved New Mexico’s record to 7-4 on the season, while Arkansas-Pine Bluff dropped to 1-11.
The Lobos will travel to Tucson, Arizona to take on the Arizona Wildcats for their last non-conference match of the season on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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.
