Lobos ambush Colorado State early and cruise to conference road win

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — There was no Christmas hangover on the Front Range on Saturday afternoon for the UNM Lobos.

In fact, whatever it was that led to one of UNM’s more balanced, two-way performances of the season highlighted by a demoralizing 21-0 scoring run the Lobos slapped on Colorado State en route to a 76-68 Mountain West road win, maybe Richard Pitino should do more of it.

“I think it was the defense to offense (that led to that 21-0 run),” Pitino said. “We were active. We were playing really, really hard. Some bench guys are giving us great minutes. I think our guys understand, it’s league play now, and we got to be locked in. And I thought the focus was amazing.”

The win snapped a six-game losing streak in Moby Arena for the Lobos, who last won there on Feb. 28, 2018, in the first season Paul Weir was head coach.

UNM (10-3, 2-0 Mountain West) had been off for 10 days and Pitino gave the team an unprecedented (in his head coaching career) five of those days off to go visit family or friends over the holiday break before amping things up starting with a Christmas night practice back in Albuquerque.

The Lobos didn’t miss a beat.

Four Lobos scored in double figures, UNM shot 49.2% from the field, and the team scored 16 points off 17 CSU turnovers — the most turnovers by the Rams since being eliminated by Texas in last season’s NCAA Tournament and the most in a home game since committing 19 against Air Force on Feb. 27, 2021.

“I think it was really important — I think that we took it serious, because it was the first game coming back from break, and a lot of teams don’t take that serious, and coach made sure that we took that serious,” said senior guard C.J. Noland, who scored 11 points off the bench for UNM. “It was a big game for us …

“We were looking at the big goal. I mean, there’s always the smaller goals … but the big goal is winning the conference, and that’s ultimately what we want to do, and that’s what coach preached when we got back. I feel like the team really wants to win the conference, so that’s why we came out and did what we did today.”

The Rams (7-6, 1-1 MW) couldn’t follow a big league road win last weekend at Nevada when they were eight-point underdogs.

UNM came at Colorado State from all angles.

Donovan Dent and Mustapha Amzil led in the scoring column with 14 points apiece (Dent added six assists, Amzil five rebounds). Nelly Junior Joseph had nine points and 11 rebounds, Filip Borovicanin scored all 10 of his points in the first half and Noland’s 11 led to UNM’s bench scoring 27 points, the most in a game away from the Pit all season (UNM’s bench had been averaging 14.8 points in road and neutral court games).

“Balance is a good word. And I thought turning a Colorado State team over 17 times, (a team) that does not turn the ball over a lot, was huge,” Pitino said.

CSU (7-6, 1-1 MW), which scored the game’s final nine points to make the margin closer than it was much of the afternoon, got a game-high 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists from star senior Nique Clifford, who punctuated his individual performance with a ferocious and-one dunk over UNM’s Nelly Junior Joseph with 6:36 left in the game that brought the crowd of 4,772 to its feet.

But the game was long since over by that point as nobody on the Rams roster, Clifford included, seemed to show any of that sort of confidence or aggression to stop the bleeding during the first-half surge from UNM. The Lobos 21-0 scoring run was the team’s largest in the Richard Pitino coaching era, and second of at least 20-0 this season (Dec. 14 vs. Division II Western New Mexico).

With the game tied 16-16, a Noland 3-pointer with 8:54 showing on the first half clock started the run and 6 minutes, 15 seconds later after a Dent layup with 2:39 left, the scoreboard showed 37-16 UNM.

UNM shot 49.2% percent in the game and the team’s 10 steals were the most by a CSU opponent this season.

The Las Vegas betting odds that opened earlier this week had the Lobos favored by 1.5 points, but moved Colorado State to as much as a 2.5-point favorite shortly before tip off.

UNM plays at Fresno State on Tuesday. CSU is at San Jose State on Tuesday.

BOX SCORE: UNM 76, CSU 68

EMPTYING THE NOTEBOOK: Some extra notes, quotes, stats, video and more, including on the upward trajectory of UNM wing Filip Borovicanin. READ HERE.