UNM outlasts UNLV to claim outright Mountain West regular-season title

UNM head coach Richard Pitino takes down the final piece of the net after they won Friday’s game against UNLV in the Pit. The Lobos won the outright regular-season Mountain West championship with the victory.

UNM senior Nelly Junior Joseph, right, tries to get around UNLV’s Pape N’Diaye during a game in the Pit, March 7.

UNM senior C.J. Noland, left, guards UNLV’s Brooklyn Hicks during Friday’s game in the Pit.

Geoff Grammer Geoff Grammer Geoff Grammer Journal Staff Writer

Published March 7, 2025 - 10:27 p.m. Modified March 8, 2025 - 1:11 p.m.

MW Tournament

Thursday

MW QUARTERFINALS: No. 1 New Mexico vs. Wyoming or San Jose State, 1 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 770 AM/96.3 FM (in Las Vegas, Nev.)

It was a dozen years in the making.

Which only seemed to make the feeling of cutting of the nets inside the Pit on Friday night all the more gratifying.

Nelly Junior Joseph, Donovan Dent and a sold-out 15,411 screaming Lobo fans proved to be too much for an undermanned UNLV squad in a 81-67 UNM win in the Pit.

The Lobos clinched an outright Mountain West championship — their first since 2013 — with the victory and celebrated with their fans on the court.

“A special night to be able to get another championship in front of our amazing fans,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said. “It’s why I came here. It was because of this building, because of the fan base.

UNM coach Richard Pitino and guard Donovan Dent after the Lobos beat UNLV on Friday night in the Pit, 81-67, to secure the outright Mountain West championship. (Video by Geoff Grammer/Albuquerque Journal)

“Obviously a great moment last year in Vegas (winning the Mountain West Tournament), but then to follow it up and do something special in here was absolutely terrific. So, very grateful, very happy that the state of New Mexico could be a part of this.”

UNM finishes the regular season 24-6 (17-3 Mountain West) while UNLV falls to 17-14 (11-9 MW).

While the Lobos had already clinched at least a share of title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s Mountain West Tournament, they needed Friday’s win to secure the outright title thanks to Colorado State beating Boise State, 83-73, in Boise on Friday night.

New Mexico will get a bye into the second round of the Mountain West tournament, playing the winner between San Jose State and Wyoming in a game slated to start Thursday at 1 p.m. Mountain at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Lobos split the season series with the Spartans and had to rally from second-half deficits in both victories over the Cowboys.

Dent finished with 20 points and six assists and senior Junior Joseph, in his last game in the Pit, went off for 26 points, 16 rebounds, three blocks and two steals in an epic finale to one of the best regular seasons the program has had in well over a decade.

UNLV was hardly accommodating toward the MW champions on Friday. The Rebels played with just six players most of the game, but kept it close until the final minutes.

A Jailen Bedford putback with 6 minutes, 57 seconds to go in the game made it 64-63 UNM, but the Rebels would get no closer.

The Lobos closed the game on a 16-3 run.

With about 2:30 to go and the Lobos up nine, the crowd started to sense a victory and begin chanting “MVP! MVP! MVP!” toward Dent. The Lobos star guard, standing near half court, broke toward the basket with seven seconds left on the shot clock and casually hit a floater in the lane over the outstretched arms of two Rebel defenders for a 75-64 Lobos lead.

A Tru Washington fast-break dunk on the next possession with 2:10 left led to a UNLV timeout with UNM up 13 (77-64) and the Pit party was on.

The Pit Party is on... pic.twitter.com/gKzzl7i0MO
— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) March 8, 2025

All that was left was for the clock to hit zeros, the confetti machine to blast and the nets to come down.

ATTENDANCE: The Pit will have an average home attendance this season of 13,051. That moves UNM past Texas Tech (13,042) for No. 25 in the country.

UNM has back-to-back seasons finishing in the Top 25 in average home attendance after seven years not being on that list. The Pit had finished in the Top 25 so for the previous 50 seasons before the drought.

ELITE COMPANY: With Dent’s assist of a Junior Joseph dunk with 1:06 left in the first half, he became the second Lobo (Kelvin Scarborough 1987) and second player in Mountain West history (Wyoming’s Hunter Maldonado 2022) with 600 points and 200 assists in a season.

He closed Friday’s game three steals shy of becoming the first player in MW history with 600 points, 200 assists and 50 steals.

DONATION: Chet and Diana Stewart of French Funeral Homes were recognized on Bob King Court during a first half media timeout after it was announced they made a $1 million donation to Lobo Athletics.

SENIORS: Four Lobo players and three managers were honored before the game for Senior Night: Junior Joseph, Mustapha Amzil, C.J. Noland and Atiki Ally Atiki and managers Nolan Murphy, a graduate assistant, Logan Russell and Nate Castillo.

BOX SCORE: New Mexico 81, UNLV 67