Lobos get right in blowout win over Air Force

New Mexico got its get-right game Saturday afternoon in the Pit.

With defense leading the way, the Lobos scored 28 points off 20 Air Force turnovers, Nelly Junior Joseph had 14 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks and Donovan Dent added 23 points and six assists in a lopsided 92-71 win over the Falcons in front of an announced crowd of 15,054.

“The disruption was terrific,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said of his team’s defensive effort. “I don’t know how many deflections we got, but to turn guys over like a (Kyle) Marshall seven times, and then getting out on the break was huge. So I mean, that is our game. That’s what we’re pretty good at.”

The win snaps a two-game skid for UNM (23-6 overall, 15-3 Mountain West), which remains in sole possession of first place in the league standings heading into the final week of the regular season.

The program’s 15 conference wins through 18 games are tied for the most Mountain West wins at UNM (the 2013-14 Lobos went 15-3 in an 18-game season).

With the victory, the Lobos sweep last-place Air Force (4-25, 1-17 MW), having also beat the Falcons 88-53 on Feb. 8 at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

UNM had lost back-to-back games on the road against NCAA Tournament hopefuls Boise State and San Diego State before Saturday, each by eight points — games that were hardly alarming in how the Lobos performed, but still created for the first time this season a losing streak right at a time they are hoping to be playing their best.

“We needed one of these pretty bad,” Dent said of Saturday’s win. “I mean, those two games we lost, yeah, they don’t hurt us, they’re not terrible losses for us. But like, we wanted to win both them, of course, on the road. So to be able to come out here and get one of those, it’s always so good.”

Sparked by defense, the Lobos used a 17-2 run over a six-minute, six-second span in the first half to push a 6-5 lead to a 23-7 lead with 11:59 left in the first half.

In that stretch, Air Force had seven turnovers, UNM had five steals, five rebounds, one block and assisted on four baskets.

Air Force chipped away at the lead and a Will Cooper 3-pointer with 3:12 left cut the Falcons’ deficit to 36-30. Then, UNM used a 19-3 run (the rest of the first half and the first 1:39 of the second half) to push the score to 55-33 on a Mustapha Amzil four-point play with 18:21 remaining in the game.

In the run that spanned the two halves, Air Force had just one turnover, but UNM had eight rebounds, including four offensive boards and assisted on four made baskets.

Amzil, who has been hampered by plantar fasciitis for the past month, chipped in 15 points — his first double-digit scoring game since scoring 16 at Utah State on Feb. 1. He was held out of three of the previous four games and hasn’t been a regular in Lobo practices while resting his foot since late January.

“I still don’t think he’s moving like he was moving,” Pitino said. “I was going to maybe sit him out as we built the lead, but the more I thought about it, I thought maybe it’s good to get him back in rhythm a little bit. I asked him during the game.

“He’s very, very important to what we do. Just it’s a hard thing because you can’t get a lot of rest right now, but we’ll figure it out.”

Tru Washington and C.J. Noland each scored 14 points and each stole the ball three times for the Lobos, giving UNM five players scoring 14 or more points for the first time since Dec. 22, 2019 against Houston Baptist.

The Falcons were led in the scoring column by bench players Caleb Walker (16) and Cooper (14).

NELLY: Junior Joseph’s 10 points and 10 rebounds by halftime marked UNM’s first first-half double-double since he had one on Dec. 29, 2023, last season vs. Division II Eastern New Mexico.

Junior Joseph now has 14 double-doubles this season and 57 in his career. And after a six-point, 16-rebound game against San Diego State in which he felt he played poorly — Pitino was quick to point out SDSU’s double- and triple-teaming in the post had a lot to do with that — Dent said he made it a point to get his big man rolling early and often.

“That was a big focus for me, to get Nelly back rolling in the pick and roll in the post up game, to get him to feel his touch again,” Dent said.

With Dent and Junior Joseph leading the charge, UNM outscored Air Force 56-32 in the paint.

RUN, RUN, RUN: The Lobos entered the game ranked No. 3 out of 364 Division I teams in the country in fast-break points at 16.71. Saturday, they had 19 fast-break points and 19 points off 14 Air Force turnovers by halftime.

UNM had just two fast break points in Tuesday’s loss at San Diego State, 26 fewer than they ended up with Saturday.

lobos 92, falcons 71

AIR FORCE (4-25)

Kearney 2-6 3-4 8, Celichowski 1-2 3-5 6, Mills 1-5 0-0 3, Taylor 3-14 0-0 7, Beasley 4-6 2-2 10, Marshall 3-7 0-2 7, Cooper 4-5 3-3 14, Walker 7-10 2-3 16, Becker 0-1 0-0 0, Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-56 13-19 71.

NEW MEXICO (23-6)

Amzil 5-9 4-7 15, Borovicanin 1-4 2-2 4, Joseph 7-8 0-0 14, Dent 8-14 7-8 23, Washington 5-12 3-4 14, Noland 5-8 4-4 14, Milicevic 1-2 0-0 2, Appelhans 2-4 0-0 6, Sacko 0-1 0-0 0, Dotson 0-2 0-0 0, Webb 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-64 20-25 92.

Halftime—New Mexico 47-32. 3-Point Goals—Air Force 8-21 (Cooper 3-3, Celichowski 1-1, Marshall 1-1, Mills 1-2, Kearney 1-5, Taylor 1-7, Beasley 0-1, Becker 0-1), New Mexico 4-18 (Appelhans 2-3, Amzil 1-3, Washington 1-5, Dotson 0-1, Milicevic 0-1, Noland 0-1, Borovicanin 0-2, Dent 0-2). Rebounds—Air Force 30 (Beasley, Walker 7), New Mexico 29 (Joseph 13). Assists—Air Force 17 (Marshall 9), New Mexico 16 (Dent 6). Total Fouls—Air Force 20, New Mexico 16. A—15,054 (15,411).

Geoff Grammer covers college basketball and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.