Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics

HENDERSON, Nev. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team posted its first non-conference ranked win in 12 years, downing No. 22 UCLA 72-64 Friday night in the Las Vegas Hoopfest at Lee’s Family Forum. The Lobos (2-0) led wire-to-wire to hand the Bruins (1-1) their first loss of the season.

Donovan Dent led the Lobos with 17 points to go with eight assists. Nelly Junior Joseph had his 45th career double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. CJ Noland had his first double-figure game as a Lobo with 13 points off the bench.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos used a fast offensive start to take an early 9-4 lead over the opening two-and-half minutes. A triple from Noland pushed the advantage to 14-6 with 15:00 to play and a Dent layup made the score 21-11 with 12:30 to go. New Mexico held a 23-17 lead at the midway point of the first half as seven different Lobos had scored a basket. UCLA used a 6-0 run to cut the margin to 23-19 before UNM forced a Bruins’ timeout with a 28-19 lead with 7:40 left. The Lobos would grow the lead to 12 with 2:00 to go before taking a 41-30 lead into the break. Joseph had 14 points and six boards to lead UNM in the first half.

In the second half, the Lobos used a strong start to extend the lead to 49-33 with 14:15 to play. A 6-0 Bruin run cut the margin to 10 before a Mustapha Amzil triple gave UNM a 52-39 lead with 12:30 left.  UCLA got within single digits at 52-43 with 11:10 to play before six straight Lobo points pushed the margin to 58-43 just past the midway point. New Mexico led 62-46 after back-to-back buckets by Dent with 8:15 left and continued to lead by 16 with 7:00 left at 66-50. A 7-0 Bruin run got the margin to single digits at 66-57 with 5:15 to play. The teams traded baskets for several minutes with UNM holding a 71-60 lead with 2:30 to play. UCLA would get within eight in the final minute as UNM closed out the 72-64 win.

LOBO NOTES
• New Mexico had its first ranked non-conference win since 2012-13, a 55-54 win at No. 8 Cincinnati (then coached by current UCLA coach Mick Cronin)
• UNM remained unbeaten all-time at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson (5-0)
• Richard Pitino has recorded at least one win over an AP ranked team every season since 2015-16, dating back to Minnesota
• The Lobos’ first seven baskets were scored by seven different players
• Atiki Ally Atiki and Ibrahima Sacko scored their first points as a Lobo

QUOTABLE
“We played great from start to finish. We struggled a bit when Donovan was out, but any time you are going to play a Mick Cronin coached team, you know its going to be a battle and I thought our guys were ready start to finish. I thought we were fundamentally sound and played a smart game. A credit to our guys because we know there aren’t a lot of games played this way, but we worked hard and got after it and kept getting better.” – Richard Pitino

UP NEXT
The Lobos return home next week to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday. Game time at The Pit is 7:00 p.m. and tickets are on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.