Lobos shine in win over Bulldogs

The halftime performance by Red Panda was a thing of beauty.

The game, largely, was not.

But in the end, UNM's defense stole the show with a season-high 18 steals and scored 29 points off turnovers, never leaving much of a doubt in an 83-74 Lobos win over Fresno State on Wednesday night in the Pit.

"I thought we played well for a lot of the game," said first-year Lobos coach Eric Olen. "Defensive activity was impactful: 18 steals. Obviously they're missing their point guard (Zaon Collins was a game-time scratch due to a lower body injury), but you play who's in front of you. 

"I thought the guys did a good job of taking advantage of that and being really disruptive — 42 points in the paint, 29 off of turnovers. A lot of that was defense to offense, which we're always trying to create. So nice job from the guys, and good result for us."

UNM (15-4, 6-2 Mountain West) extends its home win streak to 22 in a row, tied for the fifth longest in the country at the Division I level, and moves into a tie for second place in the Mountain West.

UNM's 18 steals, the second most in a Mountain West game in program history (19 vs. Colorado State in the Pit in 2005), really prevented the Bulldogs from ever posing much of a threat on Wednesday, even as the closing minutes of the game turned into a whistle-fest with the visitors attempting 22 free throws in the second half alone, chipping away at a Lobos lead that was at 20 points with under 8 minutes remaining in the game. 

The Bulldogs (9-10, 3-5 MW) benefitted from 26 free throw attempts in a game UNM was called for 23 personal fouls — several of them questionable according to an unofficial poll of reactions from the announced Pit crowd of 11,924.

Those fans went wild at the 2:08 mark in the second half when Olen was called for a technical foul just moments after just throwing up his arms and laughing at the fifth foul called on his starting point guard, Deyton Albury (an offensive charging call in the backcourt). When official Daryl Gelinas T-d Olen up, there was no yelling, just a quiet exchange near the bench as the Lobos were dribbling the ball in their halfcourt offense. Olen said his piece, and took a sip of water and walked away.

Chants of "Er-ic O-len! Er-ic O-len!" showered the court for a few minutes after what was one of the less demonstrative technical foul calls in the Pit's six decade existence. 

"That's my first technical since 2018. I try to keep my composure on the sideline," said Olen in the postgame press conference. "I told the official that I had high expectations for tonight. That was it. I'm sure that's going to disappoint some of the Lobo fans who want me to lose it on the officials. I'm not sure that was warranted, but it happened."

Senior guard Luke Haupt, whose dad is one of the winningest high school coaches in California giving him an up close and personal view of plenty of coaching exchanges with refs through the years, had a bit of a critique of his head coach after the game. 

"Get a little more animated, maybe," Haupt said. "If you're gonna get a T, might as well earn it, right?"

Haupt certainly earned the ability to poke a little fun at his coach's rather nonchalant technical. The senior transfer from Division II Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego had nine points, six assists, four rebounds and five steals. He and Uriah Tenette (15 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals) became the first Lobos to each have four steals in the same Mountain West game since 2003. 

UNM hit 10-of-35 3-pointers and shot 42.7% overall in the game. 

Tenette's 15 and fellow freshman Jake Hall's 16 led the scoring charge while Tomislav Buljan had a 12-point, 10 rebound double-double to go along with three steals. Albury's 11 points made for the fourth Lobo in double figures. 

Fresno State freshman forward DeShawn Gory finished with one of the great Pit opponent statlines: 31 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and six turnovers.

Red Panda steals the show

Red Panda, one of the world's most famous touring halftime show acts, made her Pit debut on Wednesday. And she did not disappoint.

First one, then two, three, four ... and then five bowls she flipped up from her right foot onto the top of her head while riding atop her 10 foot unicycle.

The Pit erupted as her last flip of five bowls successfully settled onto the balancing stack atop her head.

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