Tomislav Buljan Powers Lobos Past San Diego State in Aztecs’ Final Pit Appearance
Freshman forward Tomislav Buljan led UNM’s comeback win over San Diego State in the Pit with 24 points and 18 rebounds. Photo: UNM Athletics.
Lobo Nation had been waiting for Tomislav Buljan to deliver the kind of breakout double-double performance he had made routine earlier in the season.
The Croation sensation had not notched double digit points and rebounds in the same game since the Lobos defeated San Jose State on Jan 31st.
In a high stakes sold out, striped out game in the Pit against UNM’s biggest conference rival, the freshman forward delivered arguably his best performance of the season with a 24 point and 18 rebound double-double that helped UNM defeat San Diego State 81-76 in what was likely the Aztecs final game in the Pit.
“…I knew what I needed to give this team to be successful,” Buljan said. “I talked with the coaches about some things that didn’t go well on my side and how we can improve that. My mentality, my attitude, which maybe wasn’t the best the last three games, so I thought I needed to step up as a leader…”
Buljan’s twelfth double-double of the season tied JT Toppin’s record set in the 2023-24 season.
But Buljan’s historic performance was not enough to completely close the door on the Aztecs until the final horn sounded.
With the game tied at 74-74, Luke Haupt buried the biggest shot of the game, a left wing 3-pointer with 43 seconds that could have been the dagger.
But the Aztecs would not go away. After SDSU’s Tae Simmons knocked down two free throws, SDSU got a deflection that forced UNM to inbound the ball deep in the corner, and disaster almost ensued.
After both teams took timeouts, the Lobos got the ball into Buljan, whose pass intended for Deyton Albury slipped out of his hands, and was thrown into a crowd of Aztecs.
Albury, who was 0-of-10 from the field, turned into a wide receiver trying to catch a hail marry. He somehow caught the ball, drew a foul and drained two huge free throws to give UNM a 79-76 lead.
On the ensuing possession, the Lobos forced a challenged BJ Davis 3-pointer, secured the defensive rebound, and sent its long-time conference rival packing back to America’s finest city.
UNM was able to exploit SDSU’s aggressive, switching man-to-man defense by crashing the offensive glass and looking for mismatches with Buljan and reserve center JT Rock. The Lobos pulled down 14 offensive rebonds and converted those to 16 second chance points.
“There’s definitely times where we wanted to try and take advantage of some matchups because they switched some things on and off the ball,” Eric Olen said. “Specifically out of timeouts if we had the ability to sort of manipulate the matchups.”
The Lobos drew 23 personal fouls called against the Aztecs which translated into 36 free throw attempts. Haupt drew six fouls himself, was 7-of-10 from the free throw line, and finished the game with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“The last time I was in here for Boise State, we were talking about how does it feel to pay that well and lose,” Haupt said. “It’s equally as good to play well and win because winning is what ultimately matters and hitting a big shot for the team is all you can ask for.”
UNM also got important contributions from freshman Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette. Hall finished the game with a quiet 14 points and five rebounds, but had a big mid-range basket to give UNM a 74-71 advantage late.
Tenette finished with 10 points and a team high five assists with only one turnover.
San Diego State jumped out to a 30-19 lead with 6 minutes to play in the first half and looked like they could have been in a position to run away with the game.
“We feel like a lot of what they got early was some our missed execution,” Olen said. “We blew a couple switches… Obviously they’re good players and they’re a big part of it. They knocked down some shots. BJ Davis got going early. [Elzie] Harrington got this his spot a couple times and we gave up too much depth on the drive. It felt the whole time that those were correctable issues and once we got those corrected we did a much better job.”
Myles Byrd finished with a team high 17 points and seven rebounds while Magood Gwath and BJ Davis each added 11 points for the Aztecs.
With the win, UNM is now tied with San Diego State for second place in the Mountain West conference standings and one game back of Utah State for first.
The Lobos will have their final home game of the season on Wednesday against Colorado State before finishing the season on the road against Utah State next Saturday.
