UNM struggles early, stumbles late in costly loss at Nevada

RENO, Nev. — There would be no late-game heroics this time. 

The UNM Lobos didn't even give themselves a chance for that to happen in a 67-60 loss to Nevada on Tuesday night in the Lawlor Events Center.

Nevada closed on a 21-8 run to seal the game, in the process dealing a blow to UNM's Mountain West title hopes.

The Lobos had a 52-46 lead with 7:07 left, but couldn't hit a shot late.

"We just had a lot of empty possessions," UNM coach Eric Olen said, referring to both missed field goals and free throws in the closing minutes. "Close game like that. You just can't have that many empty possessions."

After a JT Rock 3-pointer put the Lobos ahead six — 52-46 — with 7:07, UNM managed to hit just two of its final 10 shots in the game and just 3-of-7 free throws in that stretch. In that same span, the Wolf Pack made seven of their final 10 field goal attempts, including their last five in a row, and were 7-of-9 from the free throw line in that span.

The Lobos (21-7, 12-5 Mountain West) fell a game and a half back of first-place Utah State with just three games left in the regular season.

"I would just say they wanted it more. We weren't as locked in down the stretch, especially with the turnovers, the missed free throws," said senior point guard Deyton Albury. "You know, it's the little things in close games."

Nevada (19-9, 11-6 MW) had three players score 20 points — Elijah Price 21, Vaughn Weems 20 and Corey Camper Jr. 20 — and outrebounded the Lobos 44-32.

The Lobos' struggles were shared, to say the least. 

Jake Hall led UNM with 17 points, but on 6-of-15 shooting with three turnovers. Albury scored 13, but had five turnovers. Uriah Tenette scored 11, but on 4-of-12 shooting and missed the front end of 1-and-1 free throws twice. And Tomislav Buljan had 12 rebounds and seven points, but was 3-of-7 shooting, had his shot blocked three times and was just 1-of-5 at the free throw line. 

Starting guards Luke Haupt (two points) and Antonio Chol (zero points) shot a combined 0-for-9 in the game. 

Nevada hit 16-of-22 (72.7%) at the free throw line compared to UNM's 12-of-21 (57.1%).

"We lost on the margins in every right," Olen said. "We lost rebounds, we lost the turnovers ... obviously, we didn't convert from the free throw line. Those are just empty possessions that in close games make it difficult."

Nevada jumped out to early leads og 8-0 and 10-2 while the Lobos managed to hit only one of their first 11 shots in the game — three days after falling behind by 22 points in the first half at Fresno State before mounting the largest comeback in program history.

The Lobos shot just 28.6% (8-of-28) in the opening half, and only two of those eight made field goals were against Nevada's set half-court defense — the rest of those 23 points coming on free throws or in transition. But Nevada also struggled, hitting 8-of-30 (26.7%) and the game was tied 23-23 at the break.

Olen said despite the past two games, he isn't concerned with the team's opening of games. 

"We were ready to go tonight," Olen said. "I thought that we were competing. We did a good job defensively. You know, a couple shots didn't go, but I didn't really think there was anything to the start."

Hall has the record

Hall now holds the record for most points scored by a freshman in Mountain West games. He entered the game with 274 points and now has 291. The previous Mountain West freshman scoring record of 278 was set in the 2017-18 season by UNLV's Brandon McCoy.

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