The University of New Mexico Lobos finished its season on Saturday afternoon with a 31-3 loss, the team’s seventh straight of the season. New Mexico finished the season 3-9 overall, 1-7 in conference and 1-5 at home. It is the second straight season in which the Lobos went 3-9 and lost seven straight games to close things out.
The University of New Mexico men's basketball team did not get off to a great start against the UTEP Miners on Saturday, but erupted in the second half to earn an 84-78 victory. It took nearly four minutes for either team to get on the scoreboard, but UTEP's Kaosi Ezeagu broke the stalemate with a layup at the 16:16 mark to open things up. The Lobos remained scoreless for over seven and a half minutes before Vance Jackson made good on a 3-point attempt. A little past the midway point in the first half, more than 11,000 fans at Dreamstyle Arena were likely in disbelief. The Lobos had still managed to score just the lone basket and UTEP sophomore guard Evan Gilyard had stuck a pair of 3-pointers in transition following blocks that gave the Miners an 14-3 advantage.
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team went into Houston and picked up its first road win of the season, 89-84. It took two overtime periods to finish the job. The Lobos led for much of the game, though never by very much, with the largest lead coming in the second quarter at 13. Familiar faces led the attack for the Lobos, as Aisia Robertson recorded a quadruple double in points, assists, rebounds and turnovers. Jaisa Nunn, fresh off a performance against Hartford that earned her a Mountain West player of the week award, recorded her second straight double-double, finishing the day with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
The disappointment has struck in a variety of ways — three loses at home, three on the road. New Mexico (3-8, 1-6 Mountain West) has been blown out on multiple occasions, but also squandered a comfortable lead against San Diego State and lost on a last-second field goal to Colorado State. UNM's home record this season is also an abysmal 1-4, with the Lobos’ lone home win coming against Incarnate Word in their season opener. The only conference victory came against UNLV, which is also 1-6 in the Mountain West and 3-8 overall.
There are plenty of new faces on the University of New Mexico men's basketball team, but the search for new talent is always in the works and the squad inked another baller to help bolster its roster next season. The recruiting season is seemingly never over and head coach Paul Weir and his staff were able to get a commitment for the 2019-20 season when Emmanuel Kuac signed his National Letter of Intent (NLI) to become the team's first projected incoming freshman of the class. New Mexico has benefitted from recruiting international players, especially with its ability to tap into the Australian pipeline of talent. From Luc Longley to Cameron Bairstow to Hugh Greenwood and now Makauch Maluach — the team has hit on several impact players.
The University of New Mexico Women’s Basketball team beat the Hartford Hawks on Sunday, 72-65, in a close game that had no business being that way. The Lobos lead by as many as 20 with less than three minutes left in the third, and by 17 at the start of the final quarter of play against a Hartford team that they seemed to have figured out, with an increase in defense pressure from UNM forcing six Hawks turnovers in the third quarter, and the Hartford press, which had given the Lobos some trouble early on, was no longer very effective.
The University of New Mexico women's cross country team had high expectations, a No. 1 ranking and an NCAA National Championship to defend on Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin. But UNM came up a little bit short in its bid to repeat as national champions — earning a second-place finish on Saturday. It was the ninth consecutive season the women have recorded a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships. New Mexico probably couldn't have put itself in a better situation. The squad had seen Zimmer Championship Course twice already this season, taking third place at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in September and winning the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals last month.
Fans of the University of New Mexico Men's Basketball team saw an underwhelming performance for much of its match-up with rival New Mexico State on Saturday at Dreamstyle Arena — The Pit, watching their team drop a 98-94 contest. Head coach Paul Weir credited the Aggies for playing the way they did and said NMSU's A.J. Harris had an outstanding individual performance — perhaps the best he's seen on that court since coming to Albuquerque. Weir took responsibility for the loss when asked if there was one reason besides Harris that caused the Lobo loss. "I think at the end of the day, we're not as far along as where we need to be 18 months into me being here, and that's on me," Weir said. "So if there is one reason, it's Paul Weir."
A career night from wide receiver Sean Modster helped propel the Boise State Broncos to a comfortable 45-14 victory over the New Mexico Lobos in Albuquerque on Friday night. “First of all, we played a team that was clearly better than us,” head coach Bob Davie said after the game. “We had a hard time stopping them, although we did fight.” The Broncos wasted no time getting on the board, scoring on the first drive from scrimmage. BSU went down the field in six plays, driving 75 yards in less that three minutes, as Brett Rypien capped off the drive with a 15 yard pass to Sean Modster for the touchdown and the 7-0 lead.
The University of New Mexico Women’s Basketball team added four new players on Wednesday as part of the 2019 recruiting class. The Lobos added Corina Carter, Azaria Robinson, Andriana Avent and Autumn Watts, with the four officially signing to play at New Mexico as part of the early signing period that began on Wednesday. The class is rated as a consensus Top 30 class in the nation, ranked as high as No. 29 by ESPNW’s HoopGurlz. It’s the fourth straight year that UNM has had a class rated in the top 30 by at least one outlet, but the first time that has been consensus.
The University of New Mexico Football team looks to break a five-game losing streak when the No. 23 Boise State Broncos come to town on Friday night. The game will kick off on CBS Sports Network at 7 p.m., the second straight week the Lobos will feature on the network. Boise comes into the game fresh off the heels of a win over the Fresno State Bulldogs, who were ranked No. 16 in the country coming into the game. The Bulldogs paid a visit to Albuquerque one month ago and went home with a fairly easy 38-7 win over the Lobos.
The University of New Mexico men's basketball took care of business in its home opener, taking down the Iona Gaels by a score of 90-83 at Dreamstyle Arena thanks to strong performances from a couple of transfers. Iona (1-1) led for a good portion of the first half, benefitting from some careless turnovers and an inability from UNM to connect on its free throw attempts.
Head coach Paul Weir last week spoke about how Anthony Mathis and Dane Kuiper are the “rocks” of this season’s team, which includes a plethora of new additions to the roster. Last night, Mathis went for 14 points and had a clutch three down the stretch. In a little over 20 minutes on the floor, Kuiper had yet to score. Then, in the last two minutes, he hit a three of his own--which Weir acknowledged was a game changer—and then scored a layup, ultimately elevating his team, the Lobos, to a 90-83 win over Iona. But Weir admitted last night after the Lobos’ win that it wasn’t necessarily those two who wholly contributed to the victory.
Two missed shots down by three in the last seconds of the game led to a 79-76 loss by the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team at the hands of the Auburn Tigers in the 2018 Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals Sunday. New Mexico (1-1) also had a significant injury in the fourth quarter. Senior forward Nike McClure was going for a layup, when she landed on a defender’s foot. She hurt her left ankle and had to be carted off. Team officials said McClure was expected to receive further evaluation Sunday evening. Momentum swung back and forth, as the lead changed 17 times throughout the game. It went down to the wire and, with 17 seconds left on the clock, Auburn’s Daisa Alexander broke the 76-76 tie on a baseline jumper, was fouled and made a free-throw to give Auburn a three point lead over the Lobos.
The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team dominated its Northern New Mexico opponent in all aspects of the exhibition matchup between the two schools on Saturday evening. The Lobos (1-0) made 11 first-half 3-pointers to get out to an early lead and finished with a dominating performance on defense, which included forcing 18 turnovers in the second half, to will their way to a 115-66 victory over the Eagles. “In the long run, it was really good for us,” UNM head coach Paul Weir said of the exhibition match. “The first half, in particular, really allowed us to establish some things that we’ve talked a lot about but didn’t really get in place. “I think we finally showed some flashes of that in the second half on the defensive side of the ball.”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — The Air Force triple option attack ran roughshod over the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday as the Falcons cruised to a comfortable victory over the Lobos, ending UNM’s hopes of bowl eligibility. The Falcons took home a 42-24 victory, their first since a win over UNLV on Oct. 19 and racked up 623 yards of total offense, 478 of which came on the ground, the most that the Lobos have given up on the ground since they gave up 417 to Wisconsin. “We’re not real good right now,” head football coach Bob Davie said. “We had our opportunities, at least we forced some turnovers to try and make it a competitive game.”
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team did not disappoint on Friday evening, as it went on to defeat the visiting Texas State Bobcats, 82-51, in its season opener. The Lobos were able to force 24 turnovers and hit a new school record in blocked shots in a game at 16. The previous record for blocks in a game was 14. Nike McClure, who played nearly 20 minutes and had a team-high six blocks, said that she doesn’t mind being known as a rim protector.
The University of New Mexico football team has been on a downward spiral in the last few weeks, having lost four straight games. On Saturday, however, the Lobos (3-6, 1-4 MW) can change that with a win when they head to Colorado to play the Air Force Falcons. New Mexico is coming off a loss to San Diego State at home, 31-23. Colton Gerhart got the start for the Lobos and was able to throw for two touchdowns in the game.
It is mostly a new-look squad, but a familiar face stepped up to play the role of hero to secure the 16th straight win in a season opener for the University of New Mexico men's basketball program. Things didn't come easy for the Lobos as the California State University, Northridge Matadors hung tough for most of the game and tied things up after a steal led to jump shot from freshman forward Lamine Diane to make it 84-84 with 6.1 seconds remaining. But that left UNM senior guard Anthony Mathis enough time to bring up the ball, give a little shimmy and get just enough separation to bank in a well-contested 3-pointer to win the game.
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team opens the conference tournament against Old Dominion on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Lobos are coming off of a 1-0 loss to Charlotte, where the Lobos seemed ready to force overtime against one of the best teams in the conference before an 88th minute goal from the 49ers secured the victory for the hosts. UNM struggled to produce shots, recording only two shots, neither of which were on target. A potential rematch between the two awaits in the semi-finals, should both teams win on Wednesday.
Solutions by The State News
