Emptying the Notebook: Lobos 'D' zones out, Jake Hall's 'O' zone nets dramatic road win

PHOENIX — Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Wednesday's 70-64 UNM Lobos win at Grand Canyon University's Global Credit Union Arena:

Lobos zone out

At halftime of the Nov. 20 loss to Nebraska in Kansas City, the UNM Lobos — fresh off one of the worst halves of basketball you can imagine — scrapped the zone defense which, to that point, had been pretty impressive early in the Eric Olen era as coach.

In fact, coming into the season, it was that tricky, confusing zone defense that seemed to be what the Lobos would hang their hat on.

But trailing 43-25 after 20 minutes at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, the new Lobos coach called an audible.

"Yeah, you could probably count the zone possessions between then and now on one hand," Olen told the Journal on Wednesday night.

That night, going zone in the second half pulled the Lobos to within four in the second half, before the Cornhuskers (now the Top 10 Cornhuskers, mind you) eventually won, 84-72.

From then until the previous three games — a win at San Jose State and home losses to Utah State and Boise State — the Lobos' defense had been just fine (OK, far better than "just fine" as it was the top-rated defense in the Mountain West for much of league play).

Again in the first half on Wednesday night at GCU, that defense was just fine, holding the Lopes to 31.3% shooting (GCU was 0-for-9 shooting, 1-for-12 and 2-for-17 before hitting three in a row midway through the half).

But then came the first dozen minutes or so of Wednesday's game (actually, you can throw in the final few minutes of the first half, too).

The Lobos' man defense was getting eaten alive by the aggressive, hard-driving Lopes who were either drawing fouls or scoring at the rim seemingly at will, erasing what had been a 20-point lead in the first half to go up 55-54 with 9:29 left in the game on a Makaih Williams bucket.

"I thought they were clearly the more physical team in the second half, at least for a big portion of that," Olen said.

He added: "The second half, they just kind of stopped running offense. They stopped screening the ball, and they just drove us one-on-one. ... we got to do a better job of getting in the right positions to load to the basketball. (The) assistant coaches did a good job with some suggestions there."

With 6:33 left in the game and clinging to a 60-59 lead — one they had just regained on a Jake Hall 3-pointer — with a nudge from the assistant coaches (Mike Roberts specifically), the Lobos went back to a zone.

"We went to zone late — played a little more zone than we've played in a long time — and got a few stops at the end," Olen said.

It was more than just a few stops. It was the difference in the game.

GCU scored three points on a Jaden Henley dunk and foul with 6:11 left — a play not against the Lobos' set defense after the media timeout, taking a 62-60 lead.

But from that point on, UNM's return to the zone changed the game away from the drive-dominant (and successful) Lopes advantage every bit as much as those clutch Hall midrange jumpers.

GCU offense vs. UNM's zone defense

GCU possession 1 vs. zone

• 5:45 2H — Brian Moore Jr. turnover out of bounds (it was a play Eric Olen successfully challenged as it was initially called Lopes ball)

GCU possession 2 vs. zone

• 4:52 2H — Nana Owusu-Anane missed 3-pointer (GCU didn't get the ball inside the arc until there were 7 seconds left on the shot clock, then shot a 3 anyway)

GCU possession 3 vs. zone

• 4:14 2H — shot clock violation turnover by GCU after a deep, desperation 3-point attempt airballed by Moore.

It was a possession, pretty much exclusively featuring the Lopes passing the ball around the perimeter not being able to figure out what to do against the new defensive look that prompted FS1 commentator Casey Jacobsen to say during the broadcast, "A lot of standing around on this possession."

GCU possession 4 vs. zone

• 3:38 2H — missed corner 3-pointer from Williams

GCU possession 5 vs. zone

• 2:23 2H — turnover by Jaden Henley (one of Jake Hall's three steals) as he finally drove the ball. The first time the ball entered inside the 3-point arc was with 9 seconds left on the shot clock.

GCU possession 6 vs. zone

• 1:43 2H — Henley, after mishandling the ball on a drive, scooped it up in a scramble under the basket and made a layup to cut the Lobos' lead to 65-64

GCU possession 7 vs. zone

• 0:59 2H — Henley missed 3-pointer

GCU possession 8 vs. zone

• 0:20 2H — Williams airballed 3-pointer

GCU possession 9 vs. zone

• 0:11 2H — Owusu-Anane missed 3-pointer

GCU possession 10 vs. zone

• 0:02 2H — Williams missed 3-pointer (this was really in transition, not against the zone).

Just to recap what happened after UNM went zone:

• 3 turnovers
• 1-1 2-point FGs
• 0-7 3-point FGs

Before going to zone, the Lopes were 4-of-18 (22.2%) from beyond the arc. Still not great, but also not as bad as the 16.0% clip they ended with.

The Lobos had allowed double-digit 3-pointers made in its previous three games before Wednesday's 4-for-25 (16.0%) showing by the Lopes.

UNM opponent made 3-pointers in the past four games

• 4 — Wednesday by Grand Canyon (Lobos win)
• 15 — Saturday by Boise State (Lobos loss)
• 11 — Feb. 4 by Utah State (Lobos loss)
• 11 — Jan. 31 by San Jose State (Lobos win)

"You can't beat a good team going 4 for 25 (on 3s)," Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew said. "I thought we had a lot of really good looks, and we didn't make them. Credit them."

It was the third-lowest 3-point shooting percentage against the Lobos this season by a Division I team, the other two coming in the first two games of the season.

Lowest 3-point shooting vs. UNM (2025-26)

(Division I opponents)

• 12.0 (3-25) — UT Arlington (Nov. 8)
• 14.7 (5-34) — East Texas A&M (Nov. 11)
• 16.0 (4-25) — Grand Canyon (Wednesday)
• 16.7 (3-18) — Air Force (Jan. 10)

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from Phoenix on Wednesday night:

• UNM holds on for tough win at Grand Canyon

Hall-elujah

Another game, another Jake Hall is pretty good at basketball moment.

Aside from the ball being in his hand down the stretch of what might have been the Lobos' most important game of the season to date, which was pretty much the theme of the game story linked above, all Jake Hall did on Wednesday was ...

• Points: 23
• 2FG: 4-9 (44.4%)
• 3FG: 4-5 (80.0%)
• FT: 3-4 (75.0%)
• Rebounds: 4
• Steals: 3

Hall's milestones on Wednesday included:

• Hall had his eighth 20-point game of the season, doubling the previous UNM freshman record for 20-point scoring games done four times by Kenny Thomas, Charles Smith and Phil Smith
• Hall reached double-figure scoring for his 11th consecutive game, tied for the second longest streak by a UNM freshman
• And with his second made 3-pointer in the game with 8:55 remaining, he grabbed hold of the record for most 3-pointers made in a season by a Mountain West freshman. He ended up with four in the game, so he's now at 78 on the season with a month to play. The previous record was Rashad Muhammad of San Jose State 2014-15, who hit 75 over 31 games played.

Then, of course, he closed the game showing off he can do more than hit 3s.

Give me a break

I can't remember the last time I saw a coach call three first-half timeouts, but Grand Canyon's Bryce Drew did just that — in a home game, no less! — on Wednesday in an effort to stop that Lobos' first-half onslaught.

It didn't help the first two times, but first-half timeout No. 3 was really the turning point from a Lobos blowout to the Lopes come back.

Bryce Drew Timeout No. 1

• Time: 15:14 1H
• Score: UNM 11, GCU 0
• Note: While GCU did score out of the timeout (finally allowing their fans to sit down), UNM outscored GCU 8-6 from that timeout to the next media timeout at 12:00 in the first half.

Bryce Drew Timeout No. 2

• Time: 8:06 1H
• Score: UNM 28, GCU 15
• Note: It would be 4:02 until the next timeout (and the 4:04 mark of the first half) and the result was ... well, not good. UNM outscored GCU 10-3 after Drew's second called timeout with the Lopes not making a single FG in the span between media timeouts. The boat race continued.

Bryce Drew Timeout No. 3

• Time: 4:04 1H
• Score: UNM 38, GCU 18
• Note: The third one's the charm. UNM takes its largest lead of the game at 38-18 before, finally, a Bryce Drew timeout finally had some visible on-court success.

Out of the timeout, GCU goes on a 7-0 run leading Eric Olen to take a timeout of his own with 1:13 left in the half and the Lopes having cut that 20-point Lobos' lead to just 13 at 38-25.

"We didn't close the first half the way we needed to. So that kept them with a little more hope," Olen said.

Hellooo, Chol

He didn't forget how to shoot. Antonio Chol, who had his three lowest scoring games the three outings before the Grand Canyon game, knocked down some shots early for the Lobos on Wednesday. After pointing out his scoring struggles in the previous games, I'm now going to point out that the Lobos' fast start was due in no small part to Chol's offense.

Chol scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half. As big as Hall was down the stretch, Chol was really what spread things out and made the first half hot start get rolling for the Lobos.

"We feel like he's overdue for good games," Olen told the Journal. "I thought he maybe even could have found more volume (in Wednesday's game) where we want him to be aggressive. He had a couple turnovers early where maybe he could have shot the basketball. But it was good to see one go in for him.

"He's a really capable player, and we know that if and when he's going offensively, it does change things for us."

Chol on Wednesday

• Points: 12
• 3-pt FGS: 2-4 (50.0%)

Chol's previous six games

• Points: 30 (5.0)
• 3-pt FGs: 6-26 (23.1%)

Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night

UNM hoops Sports Information Director Steve Kirkland passed this gem along after Wednesday's game:

The UNM Lobos have shot 50% or better on 3-pointers twice this season. Both were against Grand Canyon:

• Wednesday vs. GCU — 56.3% (9-16)
• Jan. 13 vs. GCU — 50.0% (8-16)

What's bizarre is that Grand Canyon ranks 61st (out of 365 Division I teams) on KenPom in opponent 3-point shooting percentage (31.6%). But the Lobos, who take fewer 3s against the Lopes than their season average, hit a higher percentage against them than any opponent.

Bad news for the Lopes

There's a lot of basketball left this season. But it's also understandable to think based on the current standings that UNM (10-4), Nevada (9-4) and Grand Canyon (8-5) have a decent chance of ending up close to one another in the standings at the end of the season, which determine seeding in the Mountain West Tournament.

Here's the bad news for Grand Canyon in that trio of teams: The Lopes aren't just a game behind UNM and Nevada in the loss column, they're a game behind in the loss column AND have already lost both head-to-head tie breakers with both schools.

• GCU vs. UNM this season: 0-2
• GCU vs. Nevada this season: 0-1 (they only play once)

On the flip side, the good news for the Lobos is that in that same trio of games, even a loss to Nevada drops them at worse to a tie head-to-head with Nevada but win in a three-way tie because they'd have three wins in the group (2-0 vs. GCU, 1-1 vs. Nevada). Nevada would only have two wins (1-0 vs. GCU, 1-1 vs. UNM). And in that scenario, UNM would win the tiebreaker.

So, UNM has the head-to-head tie breaker with GCU, the tie-breaker win in a three-way tie with Nevada and GCU and no worse than a tie with Nevada in a head-to-head tie.

Got all that?

#FireGrammer!

My reputation preceded me on Wednesday. The Havocs came with sigs with a sentiment shared by many around the Mountain West: Let's get rid of that Geoff Grammer guy already! 

For those who don't know, the #FireGrammer push is one I've actually been pushing on social media sort of as a joke. Maybe it's catching on too well.

The celebration will have to wait

Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew remains stuck on career coaching victory 299.

He's now had two chances at that milestone 300th career coaching victory, first losing Saturday at UNLV, 80-78, and then again on Wednesday.

Drew must really be happy to be done with the Lobos this season. In the Jan. 13 meeting in the Pit, aside from that whole 23-point loss thing, he was ejected from the game for a pair of rapid-fire technical fouls. Then, Wednesday, it was a home loss to ruin what could have been career win 300.

Some good Buljan moments

Tomislav Buljan didn't have bis best game Wednesday in Phoenix, but he did have a 12 points and 10 rebounds, his 12th double-double of the season, and a couple clips worth sharing.

First, his lone offensive board came late and in a big moment. With 2:05 left in the game and UNM up by just one point, Buljan grabbed his only offensive board of the night and had this putback.

And earlier in the game (10:32 1H, to be precise), Buljan saw an opening in the lane and took it ...

Bye, bye, bye!

The Lobos and Utah State have already played 14 league games, and each have their first "bye" slot in the schedule this weekend.

The 10 other teams in the Mountain West have already had their byes.

 Utah State's bye will be filled by playing an extremely rare February nonconference game against Memphis on Saturday in Logan, so it's not really a bye at all, just a bye on the league schedule.

Rematches

The Lobos are now 2-1 in rematches this season:

Rematch wins (Game 2 vs. a team)

• San Jose State
• Grand Canyon

Rematch losses (Game 2 vs. a team)

• Boise State

Meanwhile, at halftime...

Who's a good boy?

Haupt to it

Luke Haupt is averaging 15.0 points over the last two games.

• 30 points — Saturday vs. Boise State
• 0 points — Wednesday vs. Grand Canyon

Haupt, of course, did other things that contributed to the win (four rebounds, three assists, two steals), but a 30-point career high followed by a 0 is interesting enough that it deserves a mention here in ETN.

How's this for a pair of meaningless stats? (I'm good at those!)

The UNM Lobos have never won a game when Luke Haupt scores 30 or more points (0-1, loss to Boise State)

The UNM Lobos are 3-1 when Luke Haupt is scoreless (wins over Grand Canyon, NM Highlands and UT Arlington and the loss was at NM State)

Attendance

The announced attendance for Wednesday's New Mexico at Grand Canyon game in Global Credit Union Arena: 6,988

UNM's true road games 2025-26:

• 12,414 — Jan. 17 at San Diego State
• 9,980 — Dec. 30 at Boise State
• 8,106 — Nov. 15 at New Mexico State
• 7,637 — Dec. 10 at VCU
• 6,988 — Wednesday at Grand Canyon
• 5,642 — Jan. 27 at UNLV
• 4,189 — Jan. 31 at San Jose State
• 3,640 — Jan. 6 at Colorado State
• 2,017 — Jan. 10 at Air Force

Series notes

The Lobos lead the all-time series 6-1 — five of those coming in the Pit and Wednesday's win was the first on the road in the series (out of just two games in the series being out of the Pit).

UNM lost its previous game played in Global Credit Union Arena (the GCU at GCU), 68-65, on Dec. 23, 2014.

The Lobos beat GCU 87-64 in the Pit last month.

Plus/minus

Here are the plus/minus numbers for Wednesday's game with minutes in parenthesis:

NEW MEXICO

• +15 Tomislav Buljan (29:17)
• +10 Antonio Chol (30:09)
• +6 Uriah Tenette (23:23)
• +6 Luke Haupt (33:15)
• +6 Jake Hall (32:55)
• +3 Deyton Albury (25:52)
• -7 Tajavis Miller (14:26)
• -9 JT Rock (10:43)

GRAND CANYON

• -1 Makaih Williams (38:27)
• -2 Efe Demirel (27:44)
• -2 Wilhelm Breidenbach (9:52)
• -2 Dennis Evans (2:24)
• -4 Brian Moore Jr. (36:41)
• -4 Nana Owusu-Anane (38:54)
• -6 Jaden Henley (36:06)
• -9 Dusty Stromer (9:52)

Line 'em up

The UNM Lobos played eight players and used 10 unique lineup combinations on Wednesday. The Lopes played eight players and used seven unique lineup combinations.

Here's a look at some of the Lobos lineup combinations, starting with the starters.

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: 0 (30-30)
• TIME ON COURT: 16:23
• NOTE: UNM's starting five played more than 16 minutes and Grand Canyon's starting five played just a shade under 24 minutes. That's crazy. You don't see that very often. And they played pretty much to a draw — a literal 30-30 draw for UNM's starters while GCU's starting five played 23:50 and were outscored by just two (37-35 in UNM's favor).

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +10 (12-2)
• TIME ON COURT: 4:25
• NOTE: Allowing two points over 4:25 is a tremendous stretch, defensively. Of course the offense scoring 1.8 points per possession is pretty good, too.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Tajavis Miller, Luke Haupt, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -6 (8-14)
• TIME ON COURT: 6:37
• NOTE: This offense was pretty bad — 0.73 points per possession — and the defense wasn't particularly good, either.

AND THEM?

• NOTE: As mentioned above, the GCU starters were on the court together a lot — like 23 minutes, 50 seconds. And, like the Lobos' starters in just over 16 minutes on the court, it was pretty damn even. GCU's starters were outscored 37-35, which is actually pretty good considering they were on the floor for much of that 0-11 start to the game (and then were on the floor together for much of that come back in the second half).

VIDEO: Eric Olen and Jake Hall

Here's the postgame presser video with UNM coach Eric Olen and Jake Hall:

Pregame from Phoenix

Here's a look back at the pregame show, for those interested in watching/hearing how wrong I probably was about everything that was about to happen in the game.

Meanwhile, back in Albuquerque ...

"Wednesday was a night for upsets in Mountain West women's basketball. The UNM Lobos had to fight for 40 minutes to avoid one."

That's the lede of colleague Ken Sickenger's article on the UNM Lobo women's basketball team's close call win over San Jose State on Wednesday night in the Pit, 66-61.

Here is Ken's article:

• Lobos rebound with close victory over Spartans

Around the Mountain

There was just one game Wednesday in the Mountain West. Here's a look at the league's midweek scores and some upcoming games:

TUESDAY

• Utah State 91, Fresno State 78
• Colorado State 91, Air Force 74
• UNLV 82, San Jose State 75

WEDNESDAY

• New Mexico 70, Grand Canyon 64

FRIDAY

• UNLV at Boise State, 8 p.m. MT (FS1)

SATURDAY

• Wyoming at Colorado State, 2 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Grand Canyon at San Jose State, 3 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Air Force at Fresno State, 3 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Memphis at Utah State, 6 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)
• Nevada at San Diego State, 8 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Wednesday's game:

• 12-2 Utah State
• 11-2 San Diego State
• 10-4 New Mexico
• 9-4 Nevada
• 8-5 Grand Canyon
• 7-6 UNLV
• 7-6 Boise State
• 5-8 Colorado State
• 5-8 Fresno State
• 4-9 Wyoming
• 1-12 San Jose State
• 0-13 Air Force

• • •

Here are the home/road standings through Wednesday's games with road wins counting as a +1 and home losses as a -1:

• +5 Utah State
• +5 San Diego State
• +3 New Mexico
• +2 Nevada
• +1 Grand Canyon
• +1 Boise State
• 0 UNLV
• -1 Colorado State
• -1 Fresno State
• -3 Wyoming
• -5 San Jose State
• -7 Air Force

Stats and stats

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Wednesday's game: New Mexico 70, Grand Canyon 64

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 70, Grand Canyon 64

Grammer's Guesses

Have I ever told you how good I am at this whole being smarter than a coin thing?

That's a 4-0 midweek record for me, not only breaking a tie with my daughter and her lucky coin, but now just dominating this race. I mean, what could possibly go wrong from here?

SEASON STANDINGS:

• Grammer's Guesses: 44-35
• My daughter's coin: 40-39

Up next

• For New Mexico: The Lobos have the weekend off and host Air Force on Tuesday night in the Pit at 7 p.m. MT.
• For Grand Canyon: The Lopes play at San Jose State on Saturday at 3 p.m. MT.

Until next time

Until next time, Global Credit Union Arena on the campus of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix...

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.