Lobo men's hoops, as massive underdogs, take a big win over VCU

RICHMOND, Virginia — In a game nearly lost by UNM’s inability to rebound, Tomislav Buljan grabbed the most important board of the night in what the stat sheet might tell you was his worst game to date as a Lobo.

Nursing a 2-point lead with eight seconds left on the clock in front of an intense announced sellout crowd of 7,637 inside the Stuart C. Siegal Center, UNM’s 6-foot-9 starting forward got a message from his head coach as the Lobos walked back onto the court from a timeout.

“We talked to him coming out of the huddle,” UNM coach Eric Olen said. “’Hey, we got to get the ball back on this one.’ And he went and got it for us.”

VCU’s 6-foot-11 starting center Lazar Djokovic got the ball, faked a hand off to a teammate and drove to the basket. Buljan didn’t budge, first contesting the shot into a miss, and then, more importantly, securing the rebound and drawing a foul — hitting a free throw at the other end and clinching a dramatic 81-78 road win over VCU.

Buljan ended the game with 11 points, three rebounds, four turnovers and one big road win.

The improving Lobos move to 8-2 on the season. Wednesday’s result come against the highest-ranked team in any computer metric they’ve beaten this season and, as a true road win, has a very good chance to be a Quad 1 win on UNM’s postseason résumé come March.

VCU, a 9.5-point favorite coming into the game, falls to 6-4 on the season.

Lobo freshman shooting guard Jake Hall brushed off Saturday’s funk (five points, 0-for-4 from 3-point range) by tying his season and career high with 24 points, including hitting five of UNM’s eight 3-pointers.

“I really wanted that first one,” Hall said of the jumper he knocked down with 12:20 showing on the first half clock, breaking the seal on a 15-point first half.

His fourth 20-point game of the season already ties a UNM record for most 20-point games by a freshman.

“I just need to keep shooting, you know? Stay confident,” Hall added. “My team needed me, and I knew this was a game (where) we were going to have to put points on the board.”

VCU entered the game ranked in the top 15 (out of 365 Division I teams) in defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com, but couldn’t solve Olen’s space-the-floor, put-constant-pressure-on-the-rim offense.

But it was all nearly for not based on how the the Lobos were rebounding — or more accurately, not rebounding — in the first half.

VCU outrebounded UNM 19-13 in the opening 20 minutes, but it was the Rams’ 12 second-chance points off 10 offensive boards that seemed destined to be the story of the game.

The Rams led 46-41 at the break when UNM made some corrections thanks to some encouragement, of sorts, from their senior backup guard.

“Luke (Haupt) came in all fired up and just gave the team a really ... inspirational message,” Hall said with a grin. “I’m not going to say the specifics of what he said, but he definitely added some fire to us coming out.”

UNM opened the second half on a 14-4 run, leading 55-50 when VCU coach Phil Martelli Jr., called a timeout to regroup just 2:25 into the half.

With the Rams back up 65-61 with 12:20 left, it was a 14-0 Lobos run in just over three minutes that pushed the lead to 75-65.

But VCU, and that home crowd, weren’t done.

The Rams had a 10-0 run and the game was tied, 75-75, at the final media timeout (3:40).

A Hall 3-pointer with 2:40 pushed the lead to 78-75, and the Lobos wouldn’t relinquish that lead, though there were more than a few opportunities for VCU to have taken it.

The Lobos defense each time down the stretch, however, did just enough.

But “enough” for Wednesday is hardly enough for Olen.

“We feel good about the result,” Olen said. “But I think it’s important for our team to understand that we’ve got a lot of basketball left.

”So, I don’t want to downplay (Wednesday’s win), because we really played well in a difficult ... environment. But we want to understand that we got here by improving. We put ourselves in position to play good basketball, because we’ve gotten better over the last month, and each time out, we’ve played a little bit better, at least in certain areas. And I think our guys can feel the growth. And we don’t want to just settle for that or this level. We think there’s better basketball in front of us, and we think we can continue to improve.”

Deyton Albury’s 14 points joined Hall (24) and Buljan (11) as UNM double-digit scorers. JT Rock, especially in Buljan’s struggles, played another fantastic game off the bench with seven points and four rebounds to go along with a plus-18 point differential for UNM in the 18:12 he was on the court.

VCU had four players score in double figures and finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds.

Just not the one that would have won them the game.

Box score: UNM 81, VCU 78