From Punchless to Punching Back: Lobos’ Second-Half Fight Not Enough in 84–72 Loss to the Cornhuskers
Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Connor Essegian celebrates after scoring against the New Mexico Lobos during the first half of the game at T-Mobile Center. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
The University of New Mexico men's basketball was completely punchless the entire first half against Nebraska on Thursday night -- save one disgusting exception -- but showed plenty of fight in the second half before falling 84-72 in the opening game of the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
UNM (3-2) suffered its second straight loss and looked hopeless in the first 12 minutes, falling behind 33-13 as Nebraska hit a barrage of 3-pointers on consistent open looks.
“They’re a good 3-point shooting team,” Lobo forward Antonio Chol said. “We came in knowing that. They made some tough ones. If we could have just executed a little bit better on that end, we probably would have gave up less.”
The Cornhuskers finished the first half shooting 9 of 19 from 3-point territory, while UNM’s early season shooting struggles traveled to Kansas City. Eighteen of the Lobos’ 28 first-half attempts came from beyond the arc, and they made just four of those treys and fell behind 43–25 at the break.
“We did like the shots we had,” coach Eric Olen said about his team’s shooting in the first half. “They didn’t go in. I’ll live with those shots. Jake Hall gets clean looks; we’ll live with that result. I trust and believe in Jake as a shooter, and I know that he’ll make shots.”
But the biggest embarrassment of the half for UNM was starting guard Deyton Albury, who punched Nebraska’s Conner Essegian in the back of the head.
Albury, the Lobos leading scorer coming into the night, was whistled for a flagrant-2 foul and ejected.
The Lobos showed plenty of grit in the second half behind early hot 3-point shooting by Hall and forward Antonio Chol, who combined for 12 of UNM’s first 16 second half points, all behind the arc.
Meanwhile, Nebraska started the first six minutes of the period 1-for-8 from deep. After Luke Haupt buried his first 3-pointer of the season, UNM had sliced a 20-point deficit to 51-47 with 12 minutes left in the game.
But the Lobos hot shooting was short-lived. UNM would go 3-of-18 the rest of the half from beyond the 3-point line while its aggressive defense put Nebraska at the free-throw line late in the game. The Huskers were 15-of-22 from the charity stripe in the final half.
Hall had a season-high 20 points, 14 of which came in the second half after he started the first half 2 of 8 from the field and 2 of 7 from 3.
Lobos forward Tomislav Buljan turned it up in the second half after having just two points and one rebound in the first half. He finished with 11 points and seven rebounds and also hit his first 3-point field goal of the season.
“In the moments where he’s not as productive, that’s not always on him,” Olen said. “Some of that’s on everyone to get him the ball in the right spots. I thought we did a little better job of that in the second half. He got a few in transition. He knocked down jump shots. Tomislav’s a really good player and someone we got to keep involved at all times.”
While UNM forced 18 Nebraska turnovers, the Lobos gave the ball away 16 times. Nebraska scored 20 points off turnovers.
“Too many turnovers for sure,” Olen said. “… We gave a few away. A couple unforced, too. Out of a timeout, not executing. Those are the ones that hurt. That’s something that we’ve had some of, not just today, but it’s something that we’re working to correct and we’ve got to do better.”
The Lobos will face Mississippi State on Friday in the consolation game of the tournament. Miss. State lost to Kansas State in Thursday night's second game.
