Lobos come alive in second half to put away Wyoming

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Insert whatever “as cold as it was in Laramie on Tuesday night, the Lobos’ shooting was even colder” joke you want.

Just don’t forget the punchline at the end was actually delivered by Donovan Dent and the UNM Lobos.

After a historically bad first half of shooting that included UNM hitting just one of its first 16 shots, the Lobos played with poise and patience in the second half, cruising to a 61-53 win over the Wyoming Cowboys in front of an announced Arena-Auditorium crowd of 2,938.

The win moves the Lobos (13-3 overall) to 5-0 in Mountain West play for the first time in the league’s 26-season existence and the 14-point halftime comeback for a win was the fourth best in program history.

“Obviously we shot 5-for-27 (in the first half) and with the style, with the altitude, they really, really slow it down, and our guys were very, very discouraged,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said of the Lobos’ alarmingly bad first half that marked the fourth-worst shooting percentage in a half (18.5%) in program history.

“And I said (at halftime), ‘Listen, if you want to get back into this game ... you better pick up the defense, because it’s our only chance right now. And obviously in the second half, didn’t let him make a 3 ... and they shot 21% in the second half. It was just a gritty, tough win.”

The Lobos opened the game hitting one of their first 16 shots (6.3%), including 11 consecutive misses and all six of their 3-point attempts.

Between a Filip Borovicanin basket with 17:38 showing on the clock (and a 2-0 Lobos lead) and a Dent layup with 9:32 left, the Lobos went on a season-worst 8-minute, 6-second field goal drought with a pair of Dent free throws in the middle being the only relief for the Lobos.

But as bad at UNM’s first half was with scoring just 18 points (they entered the game averaging 87.0 points per game, good for ninth best in the country), their defense wasn’t awful, holding Wyoming to 32 points — a total that in most games would be lauded, but by comparison looked like maybe an insurmountable total with Wyoming holding a 14-point lead.

The Lobos opened the second half on a 17-1 run, taking their first lead since 2-0 on a Dent 3-point play with 13:45 left in the game and the score showing 35-33.

“We came in with a great mindset,” said Dent, who finished with 22 points, six assists and three steals to go along with a perfect 9-for-9 showing at the free throw line. “We wanted to get to 5-0 (in the Mountain West) for the first time. We had a great mindset, great practice leading up to it. Sometimes the offensive side just isn’t falling, and we just picked up on the defensive side.

“We had to face a lot of adversity through this game. We stuck together, stayed strong,” he said.

Wyoming opened the second half missing its first nine shots and the Lobos‘ initial surge looked like it might be game over for the host Cowboys (9-7, 2-3 MW).

But the Pokes had more fight left in them, even without leading scorer Obi Agbim, sitting out his second straight game.

Wyoming, which seemed to move the ball at least in the first half better than most games with the talented Agbim, went on a 12-3 run and led 45-38 with 9:16 left before the Lobos closed strong — using both its offense (43 second-half points and a career-high 16 points from Borovicanin), and defense (holding Wyoming to 21.4% shooting in the second half and 21 total points not to mention fantastic on-ball defense from freshman forward Jovan Milicevic).

“Five-and-oh for the first time in 26 years, another road conference win — that’s what? Three for us, which is great,” Pitino said. “We just needed to figure out a way to do it, now we can get back home, get some rest, and get back to San Diego State prep.”

BOX SCORE: New Mexico 61, Wyoming 53

MOUNTAIN WEST STANDINGS: Through Tuesday's games...

5-0 — Utah State

5-0 — New Mexico

4-1 — Boise State

3-1 — Colorado State

3-1 — UNLV

2-1 — San Diego State

2-3 — Wyoming

0-3 — Air Force

0-4 — Nevada

0-5 — San Jose State

0-5 — Fresno State