Two Years After Dent’s Buzzer-Beater, Lobos and Mavericks Meet Again — With New Rosters
Lobos Deyton Albury (1) dribbles up court in New Mexico’s season opener at The Pit on Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: Erik Moulton/The Pit Press
ALBUQUERQUE — The UNM men’s basketball team will look to stay perfect when it hosts UT Arlington on Saturday at The Pit.
The game is a rematch of a thriller two years ago that ended with a game-winning layup by Donavon Dent with 0.05 seconds.
Dent is gone — and so is everyone else who played or even sat on the bench in that game. Neither team returns a single player from the Nov. 16, 2023, matchup that ended in an 82–80 win for UNM.
The Mavericks were picked to finish fourth in the 7-team Western Athletic Conference (WAC) this season. They currently sit at a semi-respectable No. 180 in the Ken Pomery ratings following a convincing 91-40 season opening win over University of North Texas-Dallas (NAIA). This is a Quad 4 game for UNM.
Similar to UNM’s season opening win over East Texas A&M, defense set the tone early for the Mavericks as they held UNT without a field goal for nearly 16 minutes in the first half. The Trailblazers had just 14 points on 8.7% shooting at halftime (2-for-23).
“Our defense was very aggressive and that's how we want to play,” UTA head coach KT Turner said following their win on Monday night. “I think they only had two field goals at halftime if I'm not mistaken, but I'm just pleased at how we played.”
Offensively, the Mavericks had four players score in double figures in their win over UNT. UT Arlington was led by pre-season All-WAC conference selection Raysean Seamster, a 6’7 senior who had 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Seamster averaged 11 points and 5 rebounds for UTA last year and is one of three returners from 2024-25. Sophomore forward Cameron Jackson (6’8) is the only other player who saw minutes for the Mavericks in 2024-25. He started in UTA’s win on Monday and finished with 7 points, six rebounds and 3 blocks.
UTA added two Power 4 transfers in guard Cash Chavis (Arkansas) and forward/center Miles Goodman (Penn State) along with North Texas transfer guard Tyran Mason. Chavis and Mason both started for UTA in their season opening win. Chavis (6’1) added 12 points and 7 assists while Mason (6’6) had 12 points and 9 rebounds.
More Ball Movement?
This year’s Lobo team did not even get a full off-season together considering Coach Olen and his staff assembled the roster over the summer.
Against East Texas A&M, UNM had 15 assists on 27 made field goal attempts. UNM also committed 15 turnovers and the offense overall had some dry spells in both the first and second halves.
“There were times when we were having trouble creating the ball movement and (we) had to make some individual plays with some mixed results,” Eric Olen said after Wednesday’s win over ETA&M. “Some of that was us getting a little stagnant, not executing the way we need to and some of that was stylistic from them defensively.”
There were also a few stretches where UNM’s offense demonstrated strong drives to the paint and great passing.
In these four clips, UNM gets dribble penetration from either Deyton Albury and Chris Howell, which leads to more ball movement and easy shot around the basket or an open look for UNM’s top shooting threats Antonio Chol and Jake Hall. UNM needs more plays like this and needs to shoot better.
“I think where we are from an offensive execution standpoint, we’re going to rely on the defense, Olen said after the ETA&M game. “I think its ahead of the offense at this stage which isn’t a huge surprise…”
UNM is offering free tickets for Saturday’s game. With a purchase of one adult ticket, fans can get two free tickets for children 12 and under.
Tipoff for Saturday’s game is at 2:00 pm.
