UNM men’s basketball needed more than just Jake Hall’s scoring to pull away from Utah Tech.
Once the Lobos started creating turnovers and turning defensive stops into transition opportunities, the offense opened up and helped fuel a 100-60 season-opening win over the Trailblazers in the Pit in front of an announced crowd of 10,858.
The Lobos came into the game 23.5 point favorites, but led only 38 to 33 at the halftime break as their defense struggled to force turnovers and the offense could not go on one of its signature runs until early in the second half.
For the first 24 minutes of the game, UNM looked like a one-man scoring show with Jake Hall having 25 of UNM’s first 53 points at the 15:57 mark in the second half. But Hall was not forcing it--the shots were within the flow of the offense designed to allow Jake to create when the opportunities are there.
“I feel like it was in the flow,” Hall said when asked if his shots were forced. “I feel like I really liked my matchup. (I) kinda could really get them off the bounce…They started switching some of the ball screens, and peel switching late, so I liked my matchups and I knew I could get them.”
Hall would finish with a team high 30 points on 9 of 19 shooting. He was also 9 of 11 from the free throw line, drawing 5 fouls.
The Lobos went on a pivotal kill shot (10-0 run or more) 11-0 right before second media timeout in the 2nd half to make the score 68 to 44 and UNM never looked back. UNM was able to turn the Trailblazers over 10 times in the second half which led to 17 points off turnovers. UNM outscored Utah Tech 62 to 27 in the second half.
“…If we can turn defense into offense in addition to what w can do in the half-court, I think we can be a really explosive offensive team, Olen said.
UNM’s success on defense in the second half opened up more opportunities for Uriah Tenette and Hudson Mayes to be aggressive and attack the rim. Tenette finished with 19 points (12 in the second half) while Mayes was 7 of 10 from the field and had 14 points.
Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi started the season opener after Chris Howell and Rytis Petratis (out tonight) started the exhibition games. Vahlberg Fasasi started 1 of 4 from the field, but finished with 17 points after he caught fire from the 3-point line in the second half, making four 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes. .
“A couple missed shots doesn’t really affect me,” Vahlberg Fasisi said. "I know what I’m capable of. My teammates and my coaches are confident in me shooting the ball. If I think I have a good look I’m going to shoot it every time.”
Utah Tech was led by guard Christian Gibson who finished with 23 points on 10 of 17 shooting. UNM struggled to keep Gibson and guard Mark Brown out of the paint for much of the first half.
The Lobos rolled out Howell and Benjamin Schuch to start the second half. Howell had an impressive stat line with five points, seven rebounds, five steals and four assists while Schuch led the team in rebounding with nine boards.
“Chris is kind of like, you never know what the numbers are going to look like,” Olen said. “We have a lot of confidence in how he impacts the game…Chris and Benny came in and made a bunch of plays defensively that got us going in the second half.”
The Lobos held pre-season All Big Sky selection Ethan Potter to 8 points on 2 of 5 shooting.
“I liked our response,” Olen said. “We didn’t play very well in the first half. I thought we had a pretty mature response to that with the way we started the second half…”
The Lobos will host Northern Arizona on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4:00 pm in the Pit.
UNM men’s basketball opened its season with a 100-60 win over Utah Tech behind a dominant second-half performance. Jake Hall led the Lobos with 30 points, but defensive pressure helped UNM create turnovers, generate transition opportunities and open up its offense. The Lobos forced 10 second-half turnovers and scored 17 points off those mistakes while Uriah Tenette, Hudson Mayes and Tunde Vahlberg-Fasasi provided additional scoring to help secure the victory.