Shorthanded Lobos Dominate the Paint, Show Poise in Victory Ahead of Road Test
Lobos Luke Haupt (3) looks to penetrate against UC Riverside. Haupt finished with 11 points after starting for an injured Deyton Albury. Photo: Erik Moulton/The Pit Press
The UNM men’s basketball team grinded out an 82-68 win over UC Riverside in The Pit on Tuesday.
After cruising to victory against East Texas A&M and UT Arlington last week, the Lobos found themselves in a tied 53-53 game with 11:30 to play in the second half.
Hot 3-point shooting kept the Highlanders in the game.
UCR guard Andrew Henderson torched UNM for 27 points on 7 of 13 shooting from the 3-point line. He had a stretch in the first half between 9:55-3:37 where he made five baskets in a row. He also scored the first eight points of the second half for the Highlanders.
“Some of it was good defense, and he made them anyway,..” Olen said.
“There were some breakdowns as well. We eventually found the right solution there a little more than halfway through the second. We changed some coverages… we tried to keep Luke (Haupt) and Chris (Howell) on him more and that was a big difference in the game.”
Fatigue and higher elevation also set in on the Highlanders later into the second half. After a made 3-point field goal by UCR guard De’Undrae Perteete Jr. tied the game with 11:30 left, the Highlanders missed 4 of their next 5 shot attempts and had five turnovers during a 5 minute stretch later into the second half.
UNM was without starting point guard Deyton Albury and key freshman reserve Uriah Tenette. Both have undisclosed lower body injuries and are considered day-to-day.
Still, the Lobos looked like the fresher team late in the second half. UNM went on a 14-0 scoring run to make the score 67-53 with 6:45 remaining.
“You could really feel it as we started to make plays, Olen said. “Defense turned to offense. I think we had at least 6 straight stops in that period that fueled the run.”
Here was a fastbreak layup and foul for Lobo forward Tajavis Miller that was part of that run.
Paint Dominance
The Lobos ditched the 3-point shot and attacked the rim at-will against UC Riverside. UNM outscored the Highlanders 52-10 in the paint. The Lobos shot their highest field goal percentage of the season at 52% (33 of 63) and were 62 % (28 of 45) from inside the arc.
“We felt like there was some opportunity for us to get in the paint,” Olen said. “They had some guys that struggle moving laterally and guarding the ball… We wanted to make sure (Henderson) had to work on both ends of the floor… There was a concerted effort to attack him.”
Without Albury and Tenette, Haupt and Howell were given the keys to drive the ball to the basket and make plays. Both scored in double figures for the first time this season.
Haupt finished with 11 points and drew 7 fouls.
“I thought he did a nice job of being physical on his drives, Olen said. “He was able to get his shoulder by… Whoever is going to provide the most rim pressure is typically going to draw a lot of fouls. That was Luke for us tonight.”
Howell, led the team in scoring and tied a career high with 15 points. He shot an efficient 7-10 from the field with all of his shots coming from the paint.
“Tonight was, they stayed home to shooters, so I was a lot more open around the rim,” Howell said. “(I had) a lot more stronger finishes.”
Some of the Lobos’ points in the paint were from steals and runout layups or dunks. They finished with 14 fastbreak points and 17 points off 14 UCR turnovers.
UNM only had 5 turnovers in the game after turning the ball over 27 times combined against ETA&M and UTA.
The Lobos also had their most balanced scoring output of the season. Six players scored in double-figures.
UNM has its first road test of the regular season on Saturday against New Mexico State at 7 pm in Las Cruces at the Pan Am Center.
