Mar. 16—Another win, another enormous step toward ending a decadelong NCAA Tournament drought.
The New Mexico men’s basketball team punched its ticket to the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship game — and likely the bigger tournament that starts next week — with a 74-61 win over Colorado State in Friday night’s semifinals in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Lobos (24-9) will face perennial power San Diego State (24-9) in a Saturday matinee on CBS. To the winner goes the Mountain West’s lone automatic NCAA bid.
It was just a few days ago UNM’s postseason fate was firmly on the bubble, a spot where the team teetered on the edge of collapse after closing the regular season by losing five of its last seven games.
Wins over Air Force and Boise State in the first two rounds set up Friday’s game, a contest the Lobos never trailed in after scoring the first 11 points. Colorado State rallied to tie the game at 23, but UNM finished the half on an 8-0 run and eventually expanded their lead to as many as 16 on a Mustapha Amzil 3-pointer with nine minutes remaining.
The Rams (24-10), who were also playing their third game in as many days after wins over San Jose State and Nevada, sliced into the lead with a 12-3 run capped by a Joel Scott second-chance layup with 4:48 left.
Just when it seemed CSU was going to silence the heavily pro-UNM crowd at the Thomas & Mack, Lobos freshman JT Toppin scored on consecutive trips down the floor to put it back to double digits.
Toppin bounced back from a silent first half of two points and two rebounds to finish with 16 points and nine rebounds in the final 20 minutes.
Jaelen House had another strong night for the Lobos with 19 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals.
Amzil added 10 points and Nelly Junior Joseph nine to go with a dozen rebounds.
The Lobos set the tone on their first possession of the night when Joseph broke a scoreless tie just 16 seconds after the opening tip. House added five points, Donovan Dent and Jamal Mashburn Jr. jumped in with shots and, just like that, the team was off and running.
Mashburn and Dent weren’t huge factors the rest of the way, however. Mashburn played limited minutes as he continued to recover from the flu. Dent sat on the bench for the final 10-plus minutes of the first half after being called for a technical foul after he raised his arms in protest after being whistled for a foul 25 feet from the basket.
Both guards finished with seven points with neither player hitting a 3-pointer.
Turned out, the Lobos didn’t need their total effort. House and Toppin shown brightest in the second half with House spending most of his time on defense guarding all-conference guard Isaiah Stevens.
Stevens was held to 13 points but he didn’t hit his first field goal until the second half where he scored 11 of his points.
Scott had a game-high 20 for the Rams, who are projected as a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos were still considered a late entrant in the tournament by many with some bracketologists still holding them out.
A win Saturday would end the debate.
The Lobos haven’t won the MWC postseason title since 2014 when they completed a three-peat at the tournament. That team is also the last from UNM to make the NCAA field.
UNM is the No. 6 seed in this week’s tournament and the Lobos become just the third 6 seed to make it to the championship game. Colorado State is the only No. 6 to win the title, doing so in 2003.
San Diego State is the No. 5 seed. It’s the first time in Mountain West history a 5 has faced a 6 in the championship game.
New Mexico hasn’t actually won an NCAA game since 2012.
