The New Mexico Lobos beat the Wyoming Cowboys 76-75 in Laramie on Saturday to push their season record to 14-0 and 2-0 in the Mountain West Conference.
Trailing by one with 17.7 seconds remaining, Jamal Mashburn Jr. committed a shooting foul on Wyoming’s Xavier Dussell and went to the line for two free throws. Mashburn sank both shots and Lobos endured three different Wyoming shots to hold on to the win.
Mashburn finished with 20 points for Lobos and Jaelen House had 16 points before fouling out late in the contest. Josiah Allik also had a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds.
“They slowed the tempo down and tried to find a mismatch,” said UNM coach Richard Pitino. albuquerque journal following the game. “At the end of the day, I thought it would be a close match because of their tempo of play and they were a really good team.”
Morris Udeze, the team’s second-leading scorer, had just four rebounds in 13 minutes to keep a clean sheet.
“I had to play Josiah more because of the way[Hunter]Maldonado played,” said Pitino. “They did a great job of spreading out the floor and getting a lot of one-on-one attention.”
Ethan Anderson scored 17 points for Wyoming and Maldonado added 15 points and had 10 rebounds to drop the Cowboys to 5-9 overall and 0-2 in MWC.
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The Lobos will face off against the Fresno State Bulldogs on Tuesday night.
Fresno State went 5-8 on the season, 1-1 in conference play, and lost to Utah State on the weekend.
Tuesday night’s Lobos and Bulldogs tips air on CBS Sports Network at 9:00 p.m. mountain time.
The Cowboys are back in action Saturday afternoon when they host the San Diego State Aztecs.
New Mexico and Wyoming rematch on Valentine’s Day, February 14thin the pit.