Lobo Pack: Weekly Game Recap

The New Mexico Lobos split two games this past week. Their win was the first Mountain West Conference win of the season.

To open the week, the Lobos dropped a contest to Fresno State by a final of 65-60.

In that contest, Jaelen House was the leading scorer for UNM with 19 points and Jamal Mashburn Jr. had 15 points.

New Mexico was able to slow down Orlando Robinson, holding the Fresno State forward to 11 points, but going 20-for-55 from the field and trying to overcome a 15-point halftime deficit proved too much for UNM.

With that loss the Lobos fell to 7-13 and 0-7 in the MWC, putting them in the midst of a sven-game losing streak. Four of those losses were by six points or less.

Then San Jose State came to Albuquerque on Friday night. The Spartans were in their own losing streak heading into the contest, theirs at six-games.

New Mexico was ready from the get-go, building a 9-0 lead within the first three minutes of the game.

San Jose State would get within 11-6 only a minute later, but then UNM controlled the game from there out.

The Lobos had five players score in double-figures in the win over SJSU, led by Jamal Mashburn Jr. with 23 points. Jaelen House and Jay Allen-Tovar both had 18 points a piece, while KJ Jenkins went for 13 and Javonte Johnson had 10. House had 13 assists as well, giving him an average of 5.2 per game on the season, good enough for fourth best in the MWC.

“Obviously good when you win,” said head coach Richard Pitino after the game. “I think the thing that our guys have done with so many dramatic, kind of devastating close losses is they’ve stayed confident. They’ve stayed positive. And the locker room has never wavered. I think they see the big picture.”

The win moves the Lobos to 8-13 overall and 1-7 in the Mountain West Conference.

Up next, UNM will travel to take on San Diego State on Monday night. That game will be at 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time and will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.