Lobos fall to Broncos, take second consecutive defeat

Half the stat sheet was a thing of beauty for the UNM Lobos on Saturday night in the Pit. 

Forty points in the paint to 14 for the Boise State Broncos; 19 points off 15 turnovers to two for the visitors; 51.6% shooting, 11 made 3-pointers, your bench outscores theirs 21-9. 

The other side of the stat sheet told the more important part of the story, though. 

Boise State hit a season-high 15 3-pointers, Dylan Andrews scored 33 points and the Broncos offense posted the most efficient offensive game of the season against a UNM team that most of the season hung its hat on defense, beating the Lobos 91-90. 

It's the second-consecutive loss for the Lobos, who fall to 18-6 overall and 9-4 in Mountain West play.

"Specifically, losing at home is disappointing," UNM coach Eric Olen said. "Crowd was amazing, again. That sort of adds to the disappointment when they bring it and we can't come up with the result."

Boise State (15-9, 7-6 MW) also beat UNM 62-53 on Dec. 30 in Boise, in a game in which neither team's offense looked particularly good.

Saturday, it was the defenses that couldn't find their way.

The Broncos' 15 made 3s came over the first 29 minutes of the game. In the final 3:53, they hit 13-of-14 free throws to ice the win.

"We went to switching early in second half — didn't execute all that ideally, and so that solution didn't really work," Olen said when asked what adjustments were being made on the perimeter after the Broncos hit eight first half 3s. "Some of those are execution on us. Some of those are tough shot making from them, but I have to go back, and we'll have to look at the film to see exactly where we came up short."

UNM's Luke Haupt scored a career high 30 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists and one steal. His previous season high was 11 points, which he did three times this season, and 27 which he did in 2024 as a Division II player.

"(I) was just trying to do whatever I can to help the team win tonight," said Haupt. "I had a good offensive game. (It) doesn't feel like it matters a whole lot right now, coming up short."

Unfortunately, Haupt fouled out with 1:03 left in the game and the Lobos down 82-81.

Boise State got 31 points and five made 3s from Dylan Andrews and 18 points and five made 3s from Drew Fielder.

It was the third-consecutive game the Lobos defense was unable to keep opposing teams from scoring at a relatively high clip.

• On Jan. 31, they allowed San Jose State to score 1.27 points per possession in a 90-80 win.

• On Wednesday, it was 1.23 points per possession and an 86-66 loss to Utah State in the Pit,

• Saturday, it was 1.41 points per possession for the Broncos.

Boise State's previous season high for 3-pointers was 14 made in the Broncos' Jan. 3 triple overtime loss at San Diego State. The team's previous high for made 3-pointers in a regulation game was 12. They made 21 3s in the previous three games combined.

NOTE: Saturday's announced attendance of 14,379 was UNM's third-consecutive home game over 14,000.

This story will be updated.

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