Boise State’s 3-Point Barrage Hands UNM Second Straight Loss at the Pit
Luke Haupt passes the ball against Boise State’s Pearson Charmichael in UNM’s 91-90 loss on Saturday. Photo: UNM Athletics.
Hand down man down.
UNM men’s basketball found too many ways to give Boise State wide open 3-point shots, and the Broncos made them pay, torching the Lobos for 15 made 3-pointers in a 91-90 defeat of UNM for its second straight loss in the Pit.
The Lobos now sit at 18-6 overall and 9-4 in conference, standing alone in third place in the Mountain West by owning a tie-breaker over Nevada, but still two games back of Utah State and San Diego State.
The 15 made 3s tied an all-time record for made 3-pointers by an opponent in the Pit, last set by Nicholls on Nov. 4, 2024.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of UNM’s defensive breakdowns was Boise State center Drew Fielder, who came into the game shooting 35% from the 3-point line and finished with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from deep.
Nearly all five of Fielder’s 3-pointers were wide-open shots.
“Some of that starts with guarding the ball, so its usually not one person there,” UNM head coach Eric Olen said. “We really struggled to beat screens, get back in front of the ball and control the depth of the penetration. Like if they get real deep on their penetration, then (Tomislav Buljan’s) recovery is much longer and (it leads to) cleaner looks for them.”
Boise State got deep ball penetration all night, especially UCLA transfer Dylan Andrews who finished with a team high 33 points on 9-of-14 from the field, 5-of-10 from the 3-point line, and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, including a pair of free throws to ice the game.
In addition to Boise State’s ball penetration, UNM’s defense was forced into difficult choices against the bigger Broncos. With 6-foot-7 forward Javan Buchannan adding 13 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the free throw line, he often posted up at the block and drew UNM’s off-ball defenders to help in the paint, sometimes finishing difficult layups in traffic.
When Boise State did not feed the post or penetrate, it often made the extra pass to get an open look for Andrews or Pearson Carmichael, who finished with 16 points on 3-of-5 shooting from deep. The Broncos finished the game with 15 assists.
“They have a ton of positional size and we played three guards at some point, and so there’s some pick your poison situations in some of that,” Olen said. “We typically default to the paint, and they made us pay for that obviously.”
Even despite Boise State’s hot shooting, UNM was able to erase a nine-point second half deficit and tie the game 80-80 after Jake Hall buried a left corner 3-pointer with 1:59 left.
After the teams traded fouls and free throws the next two possessions, Luke Haupt missed one of two at the line which resulted in UNM trailing 82-81.
On the ensuing defensive possession, Haupt fouled out on a questionable blocking foul drawn by Andrews. Andrews sank both free throws to make the score 84-81, and UNM took the ball down the floor and settled for a Uriah Tenette step-back 3-pointer that was off the mark.
It marked the second time, including UNM’s 83-79 loss to San Diego State, that Tenette had the ball for a potential tying bucket but couldn’t convert.
“We didn’t like specify this specific shot we want,” Olen said. “He got a switch onto I think Carmichael on that one, and he got a ton of separation. I thought relative to time and situation, that was a pretty quality look. If you told me we could have that shot coming out I would have signed up for it, absolutely.”
Boise State finished a near perfect 26-of-27 from the free throw line, while UNM was 15-of-21.
Haupt’s missed free throw down the stretch certainly does not define his performance, as he was the hero for UNM on both offense and defense. He finished with 30 points, six assists and four rebounds, while being asked to guard Boise State’s best players on the floor.
“We’re talking about it because he scored 30 points, but sometimes he scores three and he’s doing a lot of the same stuff,” Olen said. “We had him guarding 22 (Buchannan), we had him guarding 4 (Andrews). Anywhere we had an issue we tried to put him. He’s a terrific player and a really impressive competitor and he’s the kind of person that everyone should want in their program because he’s a winner.”
Outside of Haupt, UNM’s offense played good enough to win this game, a far cry from the 53 point performance they put up in Boise on Dec. 30. With Tomislav Buljan having a quiet seven point and nine rebound performance due Boise State double teaming him, UNM was able to take advantage of Boise State’s defense by attacking the basket and scoring at the rim.
The Lobos outscored Boise State 40-14 in the paint, only committed five turnovers, and shot 51% from the field (32-of-62) and 45% from the 3-point line (11-of-24).
Hall finished with 19 points, which was his 10th straight game scoring in double figures. Tenette had 14 points on an efficient 4-of-7 shooting to go along with five assists and two steals.
UNM will go on the road on Wednesday to take on Grand Canyon, who just lost to UNLV 80-78.
