Wright: Lobos out-spunk the Aggies, but barely

Other than Lou Grant, don’t we all love spunk?

This was big-boy basketball, made a bit bigger by the stakes. The New Mexico Lobos beat the Utah State Aggies on Sunday at the Pit, 82-79, taking a two-game lead in the Mountain West men’s basketball standings with five games to play.

There was plenty of spunk to go around, at both ends of the court.

The Lobos, down by nine points early in the second half, rallied to take a 52-51 lead on two Braden Appelhans free throws

The Aggies, down by eight with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left in the game, came back to tie it at 76 just a minute, 31 seconds later.

Then came a Tru Washington free throw, a Washington 3-pointer, Mason Falslev’s 3 for the Aggies, a successful UNM in-bounds play (after the first one didn’t work, forcing a timeout) two Donovan Dent free throws and a Dent block (ill-advised or otherwise) of Ian Martinez’s desperation 3-point attempt.

Game over. Drive safely, all 15,411 of you.

“Amazing job of just finding a way,” Lobos coach Richard Pitino said afterward, noting the absence of starter Mustapha Amzil (plantar fasciitis) and that of sixth man CJ Noland (concussion symptoms) for all but seven minutes of Sunday’s contest. “… It was a phenomenal game.”

You’ll forgive me now, I hope, if I indulge in a bit of pre-nostalgia.

Of the five current Mountain West schools that plan to leave the conference after the 2025-26 academic year, I’ll miss Utah State — as with Dorothy and the Scarecrow — most of all.

Why? Utah State University’s got spunk, that’s why.

There the Aggies are, hidden away in Utah’s Cache Valley, the little brother, while big brothers Utah and BYU play Cain and Abel. Yet, they’ve more than held their own.

Lobo fans, I’m guessing, might attach more value to the soon-to-be severed rivalries with Boise State, San Diego State and Colorado State. Fresno State not so much, other than that football fiasco in 1991.

For me — forgive me again, this time for a fit of geezerism — the UNM-USU rivalry dates to the 1950s, as far back as that with CSU and farther back than those with the other defectors-to-be.

My first Lobos-Utah State memory, in 1954 as a Sandia Base Elementary School second-grader, was reading the Albuquerque Journal’s account of an 18-0 UtAgs victory over UNM in football. Yes, they missed all three points-after, this being long before American football discovered soccer players (or vice versa).

I was at Johnson Gym in 1961, as a Monroe Junior High School eighth-grader, when the Lobos took what then was a rare men’s basketball victory over a UtAgs team led by forward Cornell Green. He’d go on to a sterling career as a Dallas Cowboys cornerback.

I could continue, but I won’t (you’re welcome). I will add, however, that Utah State’s men’s basketball win percentage against New Mexico (.723) is better than Colorado State’s, San Diego State’s, Fresno State’s or Boise State’s. That’s largely because the UtAgs went 18-4 against the Lobos when both schools were members of the Skyline Conference (1952-62).

All that matters this morning, though, is that UNM is 2-0 against Utah State in 2024-25.

After the Lobos’ unexpected 82-63 blowout of the Aggies in Logan on Feb. 1, it made total sense that UNM would win again at the Pit. They did — in a fashion both totally different yet strikingly similar to the earlier game at Utah State.

Point guard Dent, the straw (paper or plastic, you choose) that stirs the Lobos’ drink, didn’t have typical stats in either game.

In Logan, Dent scored only 14 points, well below his average, and was a subpar 5-of-13 from the field — but led the Lobos with six assists.

Sunday at the Pit, Dent scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting — but had just three assists and committed five turnovers as he struggled to get to the basket against the Aggies’ 2-3 matchup zone.

On both occasions, as they’ve been doing all season and as per Pitino, the spunky Lobos found a way.

In the game at Logan, four Lobos, in addition to Dent, scored in double figures. Center Nelly Junior Joseph was 7-of-7 from the field.

On Sunday, Washington played the game of his thus-far-brief UNM career: 25 points, four assists, four steals, five rebounds.

“Tru Washington stepped up in such a huge way,” Pitino said.

Meanwhile, be assured that former UNM and current Utah State football coach Bronco Mendenhall shed no tears after the game.

He only cries when his school wins.