Jan. 4—New Mexico’s Nelly Junior Joseph picked up a loose ball and hit a 15-foot buzzer-beating jumper in overtime late Friday to give the Lobos an 82-81 win over Nevada in the 1,000th — and arguably one of the best — men’s basketball games played in the Pit.
Few endings in the nearly 60-year history of the iconic Albuquerque arena have been as dramatic.
“They followed Donnie (teammate Donovan Dent). He was on the floor, and I was like, ‘Oh my god,'” Junior Joseph, the Lobos’ senior center from Nigeria who had never hit a game-winning shot in his life, explained about the final, frantic moments.
“So I saw the ball was on the floor. I had to pick it up. I was just like, ‘Let me just shoot it.’ So, I shot it. And it went in. … I didn’t have time to think. I know there was like probably one second left, so I just took it, shoot it.”
In the moment between that Nike Elite basketball leaving the extended right hand of Junior Joseph and falling through the net, the game’s final buzzer sounded, only to be drowned out instantly by the roar of an announced Pit crowd of 14,622 who got what they came for, and then some.
“Certainly a great way to honor a historic, amazing building,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said of the win and the milestone of Friday being the 1,000th Lobo men’s basketball game played in the venue officially called University Arena.
“The building is obviously great, but the building is nothing without the unbelievable fans that we have. I am extremely grateful every single day that I get to coach in a community that really cares about Lobo basketball and about the Lobos and all the sports.”
The win pushes the Lobos to 12-3 overall on the season, including 8-1 in the Pit this season, and a perfect 4-0 in Mountain West play.
For Nevada, coached by former Lobo head coach Steve Alford whose Associate Head Coach Craig Neal is also a former Lobo head coach, the gut-punch loss — not unlike the one they gave the Lobos two years ago at the buzzer in the Pit — drops the team to 8-7 and 0-4 in Mountain West games, losers of all four league games by a total of 11 points.
Between Pitino (63 games as UNM’s coach in the Pit), Alford (103) and Neal (61), the men accounted for nearly a quarter of those 1,000 games played in the arena.
“That’s a heck of a college basketball game,” Alford told Nevada Sports Net afterward. “It’s probably fitting for the Pit’s 1,000th game. That’s what that building is all about. That’s what college basketball is all about. …
“You were going to feel for whichever team was on the short end of this one.”
Following a controversial foul call, Nevada’s Kobe Sanders hit two free throws to give the Wolf Pack an 81-80 lead with 30 seconds to go in overtime.
On the next play, Nevada’s Chuck Bailey tied up Dent, forcing a jump ball with the possession arrow pointing to Nevada.
But the Wolf Pack, who had already burned through all of its timeouts, inbounded the ball to the 6-foot-9 Sanders in the corner of the court, leading to Lobo guard Filip Borovicanin and C.J. Noland to immediately trap the ball. Without a timeout to call, and not wanting to turn it over on the Lobos’ end of the court with just 14 seconds remaining in the game, Sanders heaved a sloppy pass down court that Junior Joseph stole with 11 seconds remaining.
A pair of quick passes later and Dent, the Lobos star got the ball with six seconds on the clock. The Lobo star guard, who scored 14 of his 20 points in the final 8:26 of regulation and in overtime, drove toward the basket only to run into a wall of Nevada pack-line defenders in the paint, as the Lobos had done repeatedly throughout the game.
Dent tripped up, lost the ball as he fell to the ground near the free throw line as the final seconds were ticking off the clock.
He managed to get enough of his hand on the ball to nudge it in the direction of Junior Joseph, scooped it up, turned toward the rim and fired away.
“This is my first one,” a grinning Junior Joseph said when asked if he had ever hit a game-winner before.
Junior Joseph hit 7 of 8 shots and finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds — his 50th career double-double and second this week in a Mountain West game. He added three blocks and the steal that set up the final game-winning sequence.
Dent added 20 points of his own to go along with six assists. Mustapha Amzil poured in 14 points.
Sanders led Nevada with 21 points. Nick Davidson, who fouled out late in overtime, added 18 points, hit four 3-pointers and blocked five Lobo shots.
Neither team led by more than eight points in the hard-fought contest. There were 18 lead changes and 18 ties throughout the game.
Neither team led by more than four points in the final 29 minutes of the game.
Davidson knocked down all four of his 3-pointers in the first half to carry the Wolf Pack to a 37-34 advantage at halftime while outscoring UNM by 18 points at the 3-point line.
Dent, who scored only six points in the first half, came alive in the second stanza. The Mountain West’s leading scorer hit an amazing layup from the left side of the basket, using his right hand, to give the Lobos a 68-66 lead with 1:33 to go in regulation.
The teams traded free throws and Nevada had the ball down 70-68 with 12 seconds to go.
Davidson drove to the basket and was fouled by UNM’s C.J. Noland on a shot attempt with 1.1 seconds remaining. Davidson hit both free throws to send it into overtime.
Sanders started the extra frame with a highlight-reel two-handed slam over Junior Joseph. Amzil answered on the other end with a nice up-and-under move to tie the game at 72-72.
A Noland corner 3-pointer with 1:49 remaining tied the game again at 76-76.
Nevada sits on its 0-4 league start for a week before playing at Fresno State next Saturday. For the Lobos, they play at Wyoming on Tuesday.
BOX SCORE: New Mexico 82, Nevada 81 (OT)
