UNM MEN'S BASKETBALL
UNM revs up in the second half and rolls past George Washington in the NIT
Lobos will host NIT quarterfinal game against Saint Joseph's at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Pit
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Maybe it doesn't entirely rinse the taste of those 1993 chili cheese fries out of the mouths of UNM Lobo fans, but it'll do.
UNM hit 11 3-pointers, scored 15 second-chance points, and outscored George Washington 36-16 in the paint, pulling away down the stretch for a lopsided 86-61 victory in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night in the Pit.
The announced 9,207 fans in attendance were more than happy to see the Lobos punch their ticket to the final eight of the NIT, even if the stakes aren't exactly the same as UNM’s infamous 1993 NCAA Tournament loss to George Washington after star Lobos came down with food poisoning due to eating bad chili cheese fries in Tucson.
“Congrats to George Washington on their season. I think that's a really talented team, really well coached,” UNM first-year coach Eric Olen said. “We played well today, which we felt like we needed to do. ... Pretty complete performance.”
UNM (25-10) will host Saint Joseph’s (24-11) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Pit in the quarterfinal round of the NIT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2. The tournament’s final four (April 2) and championship (April 5) will be held in Indianapolis.
George Washington, of the Atlantic 10, ends its season — and it’s weeklong road trip west after beating Utah Valley on Wednesday night in Orem — with a 19-16 record.
Revolutionaries head coach Chris Caputo would have rather his team’s trip not have included going up against the trio of Lobo freshmen — Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall and Tomislav Buljan — who dominated Sunday night.
“I want to give credit to New Mexico. Obviously, Eric's a really good coach. I've coached against him before. He's doing a great job,” said Caputo, who said this was his first time in Utah or New Mexico. “But those three freshmen — I mean, it's funny to me, with all the great freshmen there are in college basketball this year, and there are so many of them, I don't think anybody's really talking about these three guys, how good they are. I don't know that I can remember, and I've coached high-major basketball and mid-major basketball, I can't remember three freshmen as good as Hall, Tenette and Buljan.”
The Lobo freshman certainly had a night:
Tenette: 15 points, six assists, four rebounds, two steals, zero turnovers (his 50 steals this season breaks Kendall Williams’ freshman steals record at UNM).
Hall: 19 points, 4-of-6 3-pointers, two steals (he’s now tied for fourth in single-season 3-pointers made by a freshman in NCAA Division I history with 113, trailing Antoine Davis, Steph Curry and Trae Young)
Buljan: 14 points, nine rebounds, seven fouls drawn (was one of the primary defenders who held GW’s star post player Rafael Castro to just three shot attempts and seven turnovers).
Caputo added of Tenette, “This guy controlled the game.”
And it wasn’t just his stat line.
Tenette filled in for starting point guard Deyton Albury, who Olen said was out with “a flu bug” and didn’t play Sunday. Olen assured Albury’s illness was not related to chili cheese fries.
Olen praised Tenette for running the show.
“Yeah, he's playing great basketball,” Olen said. “… His playmaking showing up, I think is a real sign of his comfort level, and just like the way he's seeing the game. And yeah, I just thought he was in total control, and he plays both ends of the floor. Big time performance for him when we needed one without Deyton.”
After leading by four (36-32) at halftime, the Lobos opened the second half with a 10-0 run, powered by three straight Hall 3-pointers to push the lead to 46-32 with 16:28 left in the game.
While the Revolutionaries never gave in, that initial kill shot in the second half seemed to shift the game from a tight back-and-forth battle to one of the visitors becoming more and more desperate as the minutes ticked off the clock.
Following a Trey Autry 3-pointer with 6:43 on the clock, GW pulled within 11 at 67-56. The Lobos then rattled off a 16-0 run and closed the game on a 19-5 clip.
Christian Jones scored 16 points to lead GW. Castro had six points, 14 rebounds and those seven turnovers.
Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
