Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics

CLEVELAND – The New Mexico men’s basketball team saw its season come to an end with a 71-63 loss to No. 2 seed Michigan State in a second round NCAA Tournament game Sunday night at Rocket Arena. The Lobos (27-8) conclude a season that saw them win the Mountain West regular season title and win a NCAA Tournament game, while the Spartans (29-6) advance to the Sweet 16 in Atlanta.

Nelly Junior Joseph led New Mexico with 16 points, while Donovan Dent and Mustapha Amzil each scored 14 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lobos opened the game on a 7-0 run over the game’s first two minutes and pushed the lead to 10-2 with 16:00 to play. The teams traded baskets for several minutes, with UNM leading 16-11 with 13:20 left. New Mexico led 20-14 at the midway point of the half before the Lobos pushed the margin to 24-14 with 9:00 left. UNM held a 29-20 lead with 4:30 left before the Spartans used an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 29-28 with 1:30 left. The Lobos took a 31-29 lead into the break as Amzil scored 12 first-half points to lead UNM.

In the second half, the Spartans took their first lead by scoring the first six points for a 35-31 advantage with 17:10 left. The Lobos answered to retake the lead, 39-37, with 14:45 left to play, but a 7-0 Spartan run made it 44-39 with 13:10 left. Michigan State led 48-43 at the midway point of the half before UNM tied the game, 51-51, with 7:30 to play. The Spartans used a 7-0 run to take a 58-51 lead with 6:00 to play before holding a 63-54 advantage with 4:15 left. The Lobos would close to within five over the final minutes before Michigan State closed out the eight-point win.

LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012
• UNM finished the season with 27 wins, tied for fifth most in program history
• Donovan Dent becomes the 17th player in NCAA history with 700 points and 220 assists for a season, the first in Mountain West history and the first to accomplish the feat since 2018-19 (Cassius Winston of Michigan State and Ja Morant of Murray State)
• Dent finished the season with 715 points (fourth most in UNM history) and 224 assists (second most in UNM history)
• Dent continued his consecutive double-figure scoring streak to 35 games, the seventh longest streak in UNM history
• Joseph ends the season with 385 rebounds, second most in a season in UNM history (three behind Drew Gordon’s record of 388 in 2011-12)

QUOTABLE
“I sit up here extremely proud, but certainly disappointed that we didn’t get the win. We did so many great things all year. To win a title back to back years, to go back to the NCAA Tournament, go to the round of 32, we don’t do that without these guys. Michigan State is a terrific team, physical and tough. The foul trouble for us was very, very difficult. They had 19 points to our five from the free-throw line. But give them credit; it’s a championship program. It’s a program that we’re trying to build towards. But I am very, very grateful for those guys in the locker room, our fans. It was a special, special season. It never ends well, only for one team, but really, really proud of everybody.” – Richard Pitino