Lobo Pack: Weekly Basketball Recap, Look Ahead

The New Mexico Lobos men’s basketball team fell twice this week.

First, the Lobos held a halftime lead over the Utah State Aggies last Saturday at The Pit, only to see it evaporate in the second half.

Trailing 76-73 late in that contest, the Lobos got a three-point basket from guard KJ Jenkins to force overtime.

In overtime, Jaelen House made a jumper with two minutes to go that tied the game 84-84. However, the Lobos would go scoreless over the next 1:52 of game time. That allowed Utah State to pull away just enough for the 90-87 win.

On Tuesday night, the Lobos visited UNLV, and from the get go the Lobos weren’t in the game.

UNM went the opening 5:32 of the contest without a score as UNLV built a 12-0 lead.

After being down by 10 at halftime, the Lobos scoring struggles would continue in the second half.

Another scoring drought, this one last 5:41, buried the Lobos as they fell behind 62-42.

From there on out, UNLV continued the onslaught and eventually won 85-56.

Against UNLV KJ Jenkins scored 26 points, but was pretty poignant in his comments with the Albuquerque Journal after the game.

“We need to hate losing more,” Jenkins said. “It doesn’t seem to bother too many people.”

Takeaways

The lack of depth is beginning to rear its ugly head for UNM.

The Lobos lost Emmanuel Kuac with a season ending injury earlier in the season, that followed the dismissal of Gethro Muscadin.

The lack of size and depth is showing up early, and will continue to be a problem throughout the Mountain West slate.

Sitting at 7-9, this might be one of those season where 10 wins could be a struggle to get to for UNM.

Up Next

The Lobos will be at home on Saturday afternoon to host Boise State.

The Broncos come into Albuquerque with an 11-4 record overall and are 2-0 in the MWC.

Boise State has won 8-straight games entering the contest on Saturday, last losing way back on November 30th to St. Louis.

The Broncos and Lobos will tipoff at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Time and can be seen on Fox Sports 1.

On Wednesday night, the Lobos will travel to meet Colorado State.

The Rams were scheduled to open the Mountain West slate with New Mexico on December 28th but that game was postponed due to COVID issues within the CSU program. That game has yet to be rescheduled.

The Rams are 12-1 as of this writing and 2-1 in the MWC, but will play San Jose State on Saturday.

UNM and CSU will tipoff at 8:00 p.m. Mountain on Wednesday night and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.