Buljan’s Record Night Lifts Lobos to 80–78 Win Over Mississippi State
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI—The UNM men’s basketball team showed toughness and poise in the final moments of its 80-78 win over Mississippi State in the consolation game of the Hall of Fame Classic.
“As the game went on in the second half, we felt like we had chances to maybe take control,” UNM men’s basketball coach Eric Olen said in the post-game radio interview with KKOB radio. “It didn’t go that way and it became very much back and forth down the stretch. We talked about it in a couple timeouts and its like who’s going to make the winning plays down the stretch, and fortunately for us, it was our guys.”
Freshman Tomislav Buljan made huge play after play, finishing the game with a season high 19 points and 21 rebounds. He set a UNM freshman rebounding record to break the previous mark of 17 set by Kenny Thomas in 1996.
“Honestly, what I call it, he’s a monster,” said UNM forward Antonio Chol who got UNM’s scoring started with 12 first half points but did not score in the second half. “Espeically on that glass. He’s very hard to stop. He’s relentless… he stepped out, hit a three, that was very big for us. His whole game generally really impacts the team…”
The Lobos out rebounded Mississippi State 46-36 also won the second chance points battle 13-10.
The second half featured 12 lead changes and six ties. After MSU and UNM traded baskets the final two minutes, UNM took the lead on a Deyton Albury lay-in at the basket with 30 seconds left.
Albury who was ejected in UNM’s loss to Nebraska on Thursday and did not start, scored scored 11 points in the second half on an efficient 5-of-6 shooting.
After the Lobos got two big free throws from freshman Uriah Tenette in the final 10 seconds to make the lead 80-77, UNM executed a late game non-shooting foul with 3.8 seconds left. MSU’s Jayden Epp’s intentionally missed the second free throw, and Buljan pulled down a defensive rebound to close out the game.
“Uriah hit two huge free throws to put us in position to make that decision,” Olen said. Really proud of him. It was his first start in college basketball against an All-SEC level guard in (Josh Hubbard).”
The Bulldogs rode the hot hands of senior guards Josh Hubbard and Jayden Epps. Epps and Hubbard combined for 50 points and shot a combined 42% from the 3-point line.
This was UNM’s first win over an SEC school since the 2008-2009 season. UNM will next take on Alabama State in The Pit on Wednesday.
