“At a certain point they have to stop making all their shots and we’re going to make some. That gave us the confidence to not get too worried or panic at all and to just keep playing our game. By doing that we came out and kind of chipped away and went on a little run.”
Down 23 points in the second half, the 2026-27 UNM men’s basketball team showed that no deficit may be too big to overcome.
The new-look Lobos nearly erased a 23-point second-half deficit before falling 91-86 to Arizona State in their final exhibition game of the preseason at the Pit (Powered by Nusenda) in front of an announced Pit crowd of 7,447.
Trailing 75-54 with nine minutes remaining, UNM ripped off a 17-0 run and cut the Sun Devils’ lead to four points three separate times.
“(Coach) said just keep playing these four minute games and we’ll chip away and our run’s coming,” UNM guard Hudson Mayes said who finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. “At a certain point they have to stop making all their shots and we’re going to make some. That gave us the confidence to not get too worried or panic at all and to just keep playing our game and by doing that we came out and kind of chipped away and went on a little run.”
Mayes was a huge part of UNM’s second half rally. He had two thunderous slams, one during the 17-0 run that brought everyone in the Pit to their feet.
He was especially effective attacking the basket in UNM’s half court offense after the Lobos were unable to get to the rim consistently against ASU in the first half.
The two-guard tandem of Uriah Tenette and Dax Hall was also a big spark plug to UNM’s second half run. Tenette finished with 17 points (12 in the second half) and three assists while Dax Hall also scored in double figures with 11 points and led the team with four assists.
“A seven-footer should never be able to keep up with me when I’m downhill,” Dax Halll said. “Just getting downhill and trying kick to the open shooters… Whenever I can find (Frederic Grani) on that short roll or Fynn (Lastring) on a pop, I’m going to hit them.”
UNM dug itself into a double-digit whole in the first half after Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Jake Hall was 1-of-10 from the field and 0-of-6 from the 3-point line and missed a few open looks that he normally knocks down.
Hall’s cold shooting continued into the second half but he still finished with a team high 19 points on 6-of 19 shooting from the field and 3-of-13 from the 3-point line
Jake Hall attacks the basket during UNM’s 91-86 loss to ASU. Photo courtesy of Ryan Kelly Romero R&R Sports Photography.
“I wish he could have shot it 29 times,” a confident Eric Olen said when answering questions about Hall’s poor shooting performance. “We at no point considered, like, not trying to get Jake more shots.”
Hand-Down-Man Down
Arizona State had a clear size advantage over UNM, but still ended up shooting 41 3-pointers. The Lobos shockingly outscored the Sun Devils 46 to 18 in the paint.
Last season, UNM’s emphasis on protecting the rim often left perimeter shooters open and made UNM vulnerable from the 3-point line. Arizona State exploited the same weakness, making the Lobos pay from beyond the arc.
The Sun Devils were led by Saint Mary’s transfer Paulius Murauskas, who finished with 31 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the 3-point line. Murauskas shot 33% from deep on 108 attempts last season, but benefited from late or ineffective closeouts by UNM defenders.
“We weren’t going with the most aggressive closeout on (Muraskus),” Mayes said. “We know he can shoot but we know his game is more inside in the post in those areas. Yeah you can say he surprised us a little bit, but he’s a good player so we just have to be ready for good players to make shots.”
ASU guard Dillan Shaw sparked a 16-0 run for the Sun Devils in the first half where he shot 4-of-7 from the 3-point line. Mayes acknowledged that UNM lost him a couple times in defensive rotations.
“We gave up too many in the first half from Shaw,” Mayes said. “He was the one guy initially that we knew was going to be an aggressive close. I’ll take responsibility for one or two of those as well...”
Together Murauskas and Shaw combined for 12 made 3-pointers. Still, Olen was fine with ASU’s shot profile and confidently stated UNM’s defensive game-plan was to force ASU to shoot 3-pointers.
“We wanted to force them to shoot threes, Olen said. “Our plan going in was to force them to shoot a lot of threes… Our communication to our team throughout that was stay with the plan, don’t deviate. Don’t overreact to shot making…I’m encouraged that they shot 41 threes. I think that’s a good sign for us going forward.”
UNM opens the regular season on Monday, Nov. 2 in the PIt (Powered by Nusenda) at 7 p.m.
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