UNM rallies in second half to slip by Wyoming in dramatic fashion

Maybe it’s a good thing one of the Mountain West’s best teams is coming to the Pit this weekend.

It’s clear the Lobos aren’t nearly as good against the ones in the bottom half of the standings.

A Jovan Milicevic 3-pointer with 30.1 seconds remaining, and a little late-game Pit magic, vaulted the Lobos to a 71-67 win over Wyoming, avoiding what would have been another all-too-familiar late-season home loss.

“Out of the timeout, I told Donnie (Lobo point guard Donovan Dent), I was like, ‘I’m gonna hit it. Just send me the rock. I’m gonna hit it,’” Milicevic said. “He passed to me in the corner. I didn’t like it. I passed it back to him, and then we got a little pick and pop action near the left elbow. So it was nice.”

UNM, which had to rally back from down 13 in the first half and down 10 at the break, improves to 21-4 overall and retains its hold of first place in the Mountain West standings at 13-1.

Wyoming, which trailed for only 67 seconds all game, drops to 11-14 and 4-10 in the Mountain West, the third worst mark in conference.

Sunday, UNM will host second-place Utah State (22-3, 12-2).

“A freshman in that moment to make that 3 — what, tie game? 30 seconds to go? (and) knock it down? Very, very proud of him,” Lobos coach Richard Pitino said, joking that he told his 6-foot-10 freshman forward he looked like Shaquille O’Neal at the free throw line (Milicevic was 1-for-5 at the charity stripe) and Steph Curry at the 3-point line (he was 3-for-3 on 3s).

Donovan Dent paced the Lobos with 20 points, seven assists, six rebounds and drew 10 fouls against Wyoming.

Reigning Mountain West Player of the Week Nelly Junior Joseph added 11 points but only eight rebounds, breaking a streak of five consecutive games with a double-double. Tru Washington scored 15 points. Dent, Junior Joseph and Washington each had three steals.

Junior Joseph’s foul trouble throughout the game limited his time on the court in the second half, but he scored five straight Lobo points in the final three minutes to tie the game at 63-63 then later at 65-65. He also had a key block with 15 second remaining that may have sealed the game.

C.J. Noland scored 12 points and Milicevic finished with 10 points, both players playing big minutes off the bench.

Wyoming’s Obi Agbim scored a game-high 22 points.

UNM shot just 52.9% at the free throw line (18-of-34), while Wyoming was worse, shooting 28.6% (4-of-14).

The Lobos each of the past two seasons suffered late-season, bad losses in the Pit to teams with losing records — on Feb. 24, 2024, to an Air Force team that entered the game 8-17 overall and 1-12 in league play; and on Feb. 17, 2023, to a Wyoming team that entered the game 7-17 overall and 2-10 in Mountain West. Each did considerable damage to UNM's postseason chances.

This season, the Lobos — 5-0 vs. Mountain West teams with winning records and leading by at least 19 points in all five of those games — continue to struggle with the bottom half of the league standings.

They've lost on the road to San Jose State (5-9) once and had to rally from 9 points down in the second half to beat them in the Pit; they've had to rally from doule-digits down twice against Wyoming (4-10); and they've had one-possession wins against UNLV (7-7) and Nevada (6-7).

After opening their Jan. 7 game vs. Wyoming in Laramie hitting only one of their first 16 shots, the Lobos on Wednesday night, in the friendly home confines of the own arena, hit just three of their first 15 shots, but also blended into the early-game struggles poor free throw shooting (3-of-8 at one point) and six turnovers in the first six minutes.

Halftime last month in Laramie:

• Wyoming 32, New Mexico 18

Halftime Wednesday in the Pit:

• Wyoming 39, New Mexico 29

And after the half, it was also a fairly similar story to what happened Laramie, just on a smaller scale.

Lobos start to second half in Laramie:

• UNM went on a 17-1 run and took a 35-33 lead with 13:44 left.

Lobos start to second half Wednesday:

• UNM went on a 10-0 run and tied the game 39-39 with 17:44 left.

“You could feel the pressure, right? ‘Oh God, let’s not lose a Quad 4 (game) whatever it was,” Pitino said. “It’s that time of year. You better learn how to deal with it. It’s great to be playing meaningful games, whether it’s winning the league, whether it’s seedings for the conference tournament, NCAA Tournament, it’s great. It’s a privilege. But, yeah, I think we were a little stressed in the first half.”

While the Cowboys shot 53.8 percent from both three-point range (7-of-13) and the field (28-of-52), they struggled at the line, hitting only 4-of-14 (28.6 percent).

BOX SCORE: New Mexico 71, Wyoming 67

Lobos vs. Cowboys, including Teddy Bear Toss: Photos