UNM Basketball: Nevada Returns the Favor in Blowout of Lobos

The one blemish on the No. 6 Nevada Wolf Pack’s record this season is a 27-point loss to the University of New Mexico Lobos at the Pit back on January 5th. The Wolf Pack came out flat in that game, and Paul Weir’s team played arguably their best 40-minutes of basketball in what turned out to be the signature win of the Weir era of UNM basketball.

The Wolf Pack were embarrassed, but bounced back with a string of wins and sit primed to earn a high seed in the NCAA tournament. And no doubt Eric Musselman’s team circled February 9th on their calendar as a payback day when the Lobos made the trip north to Reno.

Payback they did, with a resounding 91-62 victory over the Lobos at Lawlor Events Center on Saturday afternoon. After combining to score just 17 points back in January at the Pit, the Martin brothers dominated the Lobos with 33 combined points. Caleb led all scorers with 20 points (tied with Porter), while twin Cody posted a team-high seven assists to go along with 13 points.

It was a steady dismantling by the Wolf Pack with all five starters reaching double figures. Nevada owned a sizable advantage in rebounds (plus-15), and a plus-four advantage in turnovers.

Anthony Mathis scored a career-high 27-points as the catalyst of the Lobos’ big win last month, only to come up short today with one of his worst games of the season. The senior guard scored just 6 points on 2 of 8 shooting, and struggled with foul trouble with earning his fourth foul with just over 10 minutes to play.

Nevada scored the first basket of the game on a Trey Porter dunk and never came close to giving up the lead.

After stumbling into the break down 25 points, the Lobos looked every bit of a sub-500 team by giving up four quick points in the paint after turning the ball over on their first possession of the period.

The bright spot for the Lobos, other than their impressive looking turquoise uniforms, was the solid play by forward Makuach Maluach. The Sophomore from Sydney, NSW scored 19 points to lead the Lobos on the afternoon.

With the win, the Wolf Pack move to 10-1 in MW conference standings and 23-1 on the year. The Lobos fall to 4-7 with seven games left to play.