Isabel Gonzalez
@cisabelg
The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team suffered a 74-58 loss to the UNLV Rebels on Tuesday night.
The start of the game had some positives for New Mexico as the Lobo defense only allowed UNLV five points through the first eight and a half minutes of the night.
However, the stats at the end of the game showed struggle in the offensive side. The Lobos shot at 35.5 percent from the field and had their leading scorer, senior guard Anthony Mathis, held to only six shots by the Rebels’ defense.
While Mathis scored eight points, redshirt sophomore Vance Jackson led the team with 16 points. Carlton Bragg and Keith McGee followed with 12 points each. Bragg accomplished a double double with 12 rebounds, which was his first one of the season.
FINAL#UNLVmbb 74@UNMLoboMBB 58 pic.twitter.com/RDrBDAsYkk
— UNLV Men's Basketball (@TheRunninRebels) January 23, 2019
Turnovers are something head coach Paul Weir has been constantly trying to address. Unfortunately for him, the problem was still there on Tuesday. New Mexico had 14 turnovers, which allowed the Rebels 23 points. While UNLV had 11 turnovers, the Lobos only got two points off of those.
The home team successfully made 14 shots from beyond the arc while UNM made six. Defending three-pointers is something Weir has also been trying to improve.
The Lobos have lost four of their last five matches and are now 9-10 overall and 3-4 in the Mountain West conference. Meanwhile, UNLV improved to 11-7, 5-1 MW. UNLV’s Nick Blair lead all scorers with 26 points, a career-high stat for him. The Rebels hadn’t swept the Lobos since the 2010-11 season.
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