Lobos easily handle Broncos in front of 'white out' crowd at the Pit

UNM’s Deyton Albury (1) is fouled by Santa Clara’s Francis Chukwudebelu during the first half of Saturday’s game at the Pit.

Eddie Moore/ Journal

Geoff Grammer Geoff Grammer Geoff Grammer Journal Staff Writer

Published December 6, 2025 - 9:18 p.m. Modified December 7, 2025 - 8:20 a.m.

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They beat Nico Medved’s Big Ten Minnesota Golden Gophers by 11.

They beat Steve Alford’s Mountain West Nevada Wolf Pack by 15.

And they wiped the floor with Richard Pitino’s Big East Xavier Musketeers.

But the Santa Clara Broncos stood no chance on Saturday night against Eric Olen’s UNM Lobos and an announced Pit “white-out” crowd of 13,614 in a lopsided 98-71 blowout victory for the home team.

“This is a really fun place to play good basketball, and our guys did that and the crowd was awesome,” Olen said.

UNM Lobos men's basketball coach Eric Olen and Lobo players Deyton Albury and Tomislav Buljan talk with reporters after they beat Santa Clara, 98-71, in the Pit on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Video by Geoff Grammer/Albuquerque Journal)

The win pushed UNM to 7-2 overall, 6-0 at home this season and extended the Lobos’ home win streak to 17-consecutive victories — all against a Broncos (8-2) team that entered the game as 1.5-point favorites.

Deyton Albury’s 22 points led five Lobos scoring in double figures and UNM outscored the visiting Broncos 29-3 on fast break points and had three “kill shot” scoring runs of 10-0, 11-0 and 12-0 — each set to the deafening background track of a roaring Pit crowd that seemed to take personal satisfaction in each of the Broncos’ 15 turnovers and all nine of the Lobos’ steals on the night.

“It’s crazy when you get a stop on defense and you just hear them going crazy, it just makes you want to get another stop and another stop and another stop,” said Albury, who strung together his best statline of the season with those 22 points coming on 9-of-12 shooting to go along with six assists, three rebounds, three steals, a block and five fouls drawn.

Despite leading by as many as 18 in the first half, the Broncos cut the Lobos lead to one — 47-46 — on an Allen Graves 3-pointer with 16:41 left in the game.

The Lobos, and those 13,000 fans behind them, ran away with it from there.

A Uriah Tenette 3-pointer followed by a Tomislav Buljan fast break layup, a Buljan alley-oop dunk on a fast break and an Albury fastbreak layup, led to Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek calling his third timeout of the game just to try and get his players to be able to hear themselves think after a huge Lobos scoring run.

“Every time we made a run,” Olen said, “you could feel it — forced them to call a timeout.”

After that 47-46 lead, UNM scored 43 points in the next 12 minutes and led 90-57 with 4:22 left — a 31-point lead being the largest of the night.

“I want to give most of that credit to the Pit, to be honest,” Albury added. “They just filled us with so much energy, and just made us want to make plays, just so we could have fans go crazy and just give the people a show.”

Santa Clara, led in scoring Saturday by Christian Hammond’s 22 points, entered the game ranked in the top 10 in the country in offensive rebound rate — something the Lobos knew gave them an opportunity to counterpunch with transition points.

Their 29-3 fastbreak advantage showed they were right.

“I thought we did a nice job with the conversion. That was something that we talked about,” Olen said. “... We feel like we have guys who can run. We have a deep team. When the ball changes hands either direction, it’s a race. ... let’s win the race.”

Buljan, who missed Monday’s game with an ankle injury, showed no ill effects, finishing with a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double that included drawing seven fouls and blocking two shots. Backup big man JT Rock, the Lobos’ 7-foot-1 transfer from Iowa State, added 11 points and six boards in 11:45 off the bench.

Tenette added 15 points and hit three 3-pointers, as did Antonio Chol, who chipped in 13.

UNM outscored Santa Clara 50-28 in the paint and hit 9-of-23 3-pointers. The Broncos hit 10-of-44 (22.7%) from beyond the arc.