Lobos Run Bearkats Out of the Pit in NIT Opener
Photo: Chris Rodarte/The Pit Press
When you play basketball in late March, you don’t get second chances, it’s just survive and advance, or pack it up.
Playing in the Pit for potentially the final time this year, UNM played like a team unwilling to hear the final buzzer on its season, overwhelming Sam Houston in a dominant 107–83 win in the first round of the NIT in front of 7,286 fans.
UNM’s offense was firing on all cylinders, eclipsing the century mark and reaching a season-high 100 points with more than four minutes still to play. That offensive explosion was fueled by defense, as the Lobos forced 14 Sam Houston turnovers and took advantage of Sam Houston aggressively crashing the offensive rebounds by getting out in transition.
“We always want to run when we have it,” Eric Olen said after the game. “Tomislav (Buljan) is such a good rebounder… He was able to push the break a little bit. Obviously (Deyton Albury) is terrific in transition all the time... We’re a good transition team. We do try to attack that if teams are going to be ultra aggressive on the offensive glass.”
UNM piled up 26 fast break points—their highest total since scoring 29 against Santa Clara in December. The up-tempo attack led to multiple highlight dunks, including a powerful finish from Uriah Tenette, who scored a career high 20 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds.
Tomislav Buljan led UNM with 22 points and 10 reobunds for his 16th double-double of the season. He also added a season-high 6 assists, often grabbing the defensive rebounding and pushing the ball in transition himself to find guards cutting to the basket, including one that set up Deyton Albury in transition.
Freshman of the Year Jake Hall added 14 points, knocking down 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and setting a new UNM single-season mark for made three-pointers with 109 on the season.
The game was never truly in doubt. UNM built an early double-digit lead and went ahead 38–22 with 12 minutes left in the first half. Sam Houston managed to trim the deficit to seven on two occasions, but the Lobos finished the first half on a 5-0 run and were up 51-39 at the break.
The Lobos then opened the second half with a decisive 23–6 run that effectively put the game out of reach.
Sam Houston’s leading scorer Po’Boigh King started the game, but only played 6:36 in the first half and was never factor. Bearkat guard Kashie Natt—their leading playmaker on defense—had three fouls in first half, forcing Sam Houston to play with a shorter rotation for critical stretches of the game.
“Those are two starters for us. Po averages 16 points per game but not only averages those points, he is a playmaker for us,” Sam Houston head coach Chris Mudge said. “He makes the right play off of our ball screens and half of our playbook has him being a playmaker or coming off of an action…. Kash does so many positive things for us with rebounding the ball with attacking the basket and with playing really really hard. Foul trouble when you only have seven guys that obviously hurts even more.”
Late in the game, the Lobos put on a 3-point shooting display, with Antonio Chol and JT Rock combining for five made threes in the final 10 minutes. Chol finished with 13points and five rebounds, his first double-digit performance since scoring 20 against Air Force in February.
Rock scored a season high 14 points to go along with eight rebounds.
“We knew that they were going to play a coverage that favored me getting open shots from the 3-point line,” Rock said. “Just take my time when I catch those passes and knocked down some shots.”
Sam Houston was led by forward CJ Beaumont’s 22 points off the bench.
With the win, UNM advances to the second round of the NIT, where it will face George Washington on Sunday at 6 pm MT in the Pit. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
