Tru grit: New Mexico hangs on to beat Utah State in a nail-biter

Tru Washington showed up to the Pit late Saturday night.

The UNM Lobos’ preparations for their heavyweight showdown at home against Utah State were already done. Game film watched. Scouting report studied.

But the UNM Lobo sophomore guard felt like he had more work to do. So he and team manager Aaron Ortiz headed to the Pit floor.

“I came in here last night at 9 with (Ortiz), and we were working on that shot, so I just knew when he gave it to me, it was going in,” Washington said. “Right on the elbow. We knew they was going to play their zone ... and I knew I needed to work on those last night.”

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Washington scored a career-high 25 points Sunday, including knocking down a well-scouted elbow 3-pointer against Utah State’s matchup zone defense with 9 seconds remaining, proving to be the game-winner in an 82-79 win over the Aggies, completing the season sweep of Utah State and tightening UNM’s grip on the Mountain West title race with five games to go.

The sold-out Pit crowd of 15,411 was as loud as it’s been all season.

UNM (22-4, 14-1 Mountain West) now has a two-game lead on second place Utah State (22-4, 12-3) in the standings and holds the tie-breaker on the Aggies for conference tournament seeding purposes.

“Amazing job of just finding a way,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said. “Utah state’s a terrific team. Tru Washington stepped up in such a huge way ... made some huge plays. Made that big 3 at the end.

“We thought they’d be physical. We thought that we’d get to the free throw line a lot. Obviously, making 27 (free throws) was great. Rebounded the ball very, very well and turned them over. So, huge win. Very grateful for the fans. That’s an amazing, amazing environment.”

Washington was a defensive terror in the game and added to his career-high in points with five rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocked shots. His late 3-pointer put UNM up 80-76.

“Well, sure. I’d like to pretend like I thought (the Washington 3-pointer was going to be there to win the game),” Pitino joked. “We thought the wings and corners with the way that they were guarding in the matchup zone — we had a zone shooting segment the last couple days that we did work on. We thought that was kind of the soft spot of the zone.

“They were going aggressive at Donnie (Dent) on the ball screens. We were able to pitch it. He was able to make a huge shot.”

But the Aggies weren’t done, yet.

Utah State guard Mason Falslev, one of two Aggies to break 20 points (Falslev 27, Ian Martinez 21), answered with a 3 of his own 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining, pulling USU within 80-79.

Mountain West Player of the Year frontrunner Donovan Dent then iced the game, shaving a few seconds off the clock before being fouled with 1.4 seconds left in the game.

Dent hit two free throws for his 22nd and 23rd points of the game, then he closed the door with an emphatic block at half court of a Martinez’s 3-point heave at the buzzer. It was the point guard’s third block to go along with two steals in the game.

The drama of Sunday was nothing like the cakewalk finish UNM enjoyed two weeks ago in Logan when it beat Utah State 82-63 in a sold-out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for USU’s worst home loss since 1996.

With one starter out (Mustapha Amzil, plantar fasciitis) and their top reserve (C.J. Noland) leaving the game with a possible concussion after fewer than seven minutes played, Pitino leaned heavily on his starting five (freshman Jovan Milicevic got the start in place of Amzil). Dent played all 40 minutes.

Utah State’s bench outscored UNM’s 24-3 and no Lobo reserve made a field goal or even shot more than one of them.

“We’re all bought in, man,” Washington said. “I mean, a guy goes out, the next guy’s gonna step in. We just got a goal, and our goal is to win every game. So every guy is just bought in.”

While the first half and early moments of the second half were eerily similar to the first meeting between the two teams — a six-point Utah State lead at halftime, the Aggies even leading by the same 48-39 score early in the second half — the drama that ensued over the final 10 minutes of Sunday’s game made for one of the best games of the Mountain West season.

Haymakers were exchanged with regularity over the final stretch of a game with 14 ties and 11 lead changes.

USU shot 47.5% in the game and hit 10-of-26 3-pointers and scored 19 points off 14 Lobo turnovers.

UNM shot 46.2% in the game and hit 27-of-34 free throws while outrebounding USU 35-27.

The Lobos’s win also clinches for them at minimum a top five finish in the Mountain West, which ensures they won’t be playing on the first day of the Mountain West Tournament and get a bye into the quarterfinal round — something UNM hasn’t had since 2018.

As for the Lobos taking it easy now that they have a stranglehold in the standings, Pitino said hardly.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going at Boise (State) and at San Diego State (the next two games), so if we think that’s going to be easy, we’d be crazy,” Pitino said.

BOX SCORE: LOBOS 82, AGGIES 79

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.

Moments from UNM's home win over Utah State