Second-Half Collapse Ends UNM Men’s Basketball’s 23-Game Home Streak
UNM men’s basketball huddles up during a timeout during its 86-66 loss to Utah State on Feb. 4. Photo courtesy of UNM Athletics.
A packed Pit watched UNM’s grip on home-court dominance slip away Tuesday night, as Utah State blew open a three-point halftime game (36-33) with a 50-point second half to end the Lobos’ 23-game home winning streak in an 86–66 conference road win over New Mexico.
In the battle for the top of the Mountain, the Lobos instead skied down it the entire second half.
The win kept Utah State (19-3, 10-2) tied with San Diego State for first place in the Mountain West Conference while the Lobos fall a game back at 18-5, 9-3.
UNM started the second half with too many empty possessions. After two missed free throws by Tomislav Buljan and three combined turnovers by Luke Haupt and Jake Hall, Utah State built a 52-40 lead with 14:35 to play that would continue to grow throughout the second half.
“They created a little separation there at the start of the second half, and we just kind of never made our run,” Eric Olen said after the game. “We felt like, we always kind of feel like we have a run coming and we’re going to respond for the most part, but tonight that didn’t happen for us.”
Utah State’s lead grew to 64-44 with 10 minutes to play before some fans started to hit the exits.
Utah State was led by Mason Falslev who finished with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Falslev started the second half 3-of-3 from the field with 9 points and was a big part of the early run to push Utah State’s lead to double digits.
“(He) played well tonight,” Olen said. “Super efficient performance from him. He makes plays on both sides of the ball he rebounds, he’s a very good player (and) had a good night. We needed to do a better job there.”
Utah State’s freshman Alden Elamin made two big second half 3-pointers and finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. After a Uriah Tenette steal and slam dunk cut Utah State’s lead to 70-55 with 5:49 left, Elamin stuck a 3-pointer to quash any run the Lobos could have desperately made.
UNM’s offense never showed any serious threat to cut into Utah State’s large double digit leads in the second half. To go along with 15 turnovers that led to 19 Utah State points, UNM finished the game shooting 41% from the field and 23% from the 3-point line, and went through multiple cold stretches where they just could not hit a layup or a shot.
“I’d say it affected everybody man,” said Tajavis Miller, who finished second on the team in scoring with 11 points. “It was real contagious. Seeing a lot of guys missing so we really got down. I feel like that affected the defensive side as well.”
There were no “Shot Fake Jake” or “Better Call Hall” labels for the freshman Jake Hall last night, as he finished with 10 points but scored only 1 point and was limited to just two field goal attempts in the second half.
“They really extend their defense to take away 3-point shots. Limited our attempts there,” Olen said.
UNM did not have any more luck scoring at the rim against a Utah State’s defense that seemed to challenge every Deyton Albury or Tomislav Buljan shot in the paint. Albury finished with 9 points on 3-of-10 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds. As a team, the Lobos were 14-of-25 on layups.
While Buljan finished with a team high 17 points, he was 9-of-14 from the free throw line, and most of his points came when the game was already well out of reach. Buljan finished with 7 rebounds.
Luke Haupt added 7 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 turnovers.
The Lobos also missed 9 free throws and were outrebounded 37-28 with Utah State scoring 14 second chance points.
MJ Collins added 14 points while Karson Templin had 12 points and 5 rebounds for Utah State.
The Lobos erased an 8-point first half defecit and took its last lead of the game 33-31 with 2:04 in the first half on an Antonio Chol drive to the basket. The Aggies scored the final five of the first half and quickly jumped on the Lobos to start the second period.
“There’s a lot of basketball left to play,” Olen said. “We’re certainly not out of anything. Everything that we want to accomplish is still available for us to accomplish…”
The Lobos now will have two days to prepare for Boise State (14-9) who has won 5 of its last 6 games after starting 1-5 in league play.
