The third seeded New Mexico Lobos (22-9) will finally get their week started in PIT WEST in Las Vegas, as they look to make a statement this week to get into the MW Tournament. They will be starting their week with a matchup against the 11th seeded SJSU (9-23) who is coming of a great win against sixth seeded Boise State in the last game of the Opening Round. The Lobos swept the regular season series this year, but this could be a tricky game. After watching what the Tim Miles led team did to Boise State last night, you know that his team will be ready to play.

So far today in the MW Tournament Quarterfinals, the top seeded USU took care of UNLV with ease continuing the long drought of MW Tournament appearances without a trip past the Quarterfinals, the last year that they made it past this round was when they made the Championship Game against the Lobos, in which the Lobos won the second of what would be three straight tournament championships. Nevada took care of GCU in the 4 vs. 5 matchup with the fifth seeded Nevada coming away with the win in a very long game with way too many FTs, to set up a game in the Semifinals against USU. In the third game of the day, the second seeded SDSU took advantage of the boards and getting to the FT line a bunch (didn’t shoot well from the line) to take care of the seventh seeded CSU. SDSU will be waiting for the winner of this matchup.

Starters: SJSU: Colby Garland, Jermaine Washington, Melvin Bell Jr., Adrian Myers, and Sadraque Nganga.

UNM: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, and Tomislav Buljan.

Tenette getting the start tonight.

I will be updating this as we go along tonight. Make sure to follow along, and as always I will be updating Twitter and Bluesky.

Lobos win the opening tip, and Buljan gets the scoring started. PIT WEST is alive and well early. So many Zia Flags. Hall with back-2-back 3s to give the Lobos an early 8-0 lead.

15:56 1H: Lobos 10 SJSU 6. SJSU will have a FT after the TO, to try and complete the 3 point play. Looked like he stepped out of bounds before the drive, but that wasn’t called.

11:38 1H: Lobos 16 SJSU 15. SJSU has done a good job of keeping this close and even took the lead after the 8-0 start from the Lobos. Lobos haven’t been able to hit anything from the outside after the two 3s by Hall to start the game.

6:36 1H: Lobos 29 SJSU 28. Hall is 3 for 3 from 3 to lead the Lobos with 9 points, Buljan with 8 points and 5 rebounds. SJSU is 4 of 7 from 3 with their starting big Nganga with 2 makes from distance.

3:55 1H: Lobos 33 SJSU 33. A lot of SJSU players are at 2 fouls. Lobos need to hit some outside shots aside from Hall.

2:26 1H: Lobos 38 SJSU 33. Haupt with a big 3 and really good defense by Tenette leads to a SJSU TO.

Halftime: Lobos 43 SJSU 36. Lobos will gladly take the 7 point lead to the break. First half stats that stand out: Buljan with 10 points and 8 rebounds, four players for the Lobos with 9 or more points (Buljan 10, Hall 9, Albury 9, and Haupt 9). Lobos with a massive lead on the board with a 24 to 11 edge with 9 offensive rebounds, but only 4 second chance points. Both teams with 5 made 3s. Lobos with 24 points in the paint compared to the 12 for SJSU. SJSU with a 10-4 edge in points off turnovers. SJSU who basically plays 6 players has 4 players with 2 fouls.

15:40 2H: Lobos 52 SJSU 45. Lobos need to take care of the ball these next 10 minutes are so, and they should be in a good spot. Garland is not feeling 100% for SJSU, and SJSU has 3 players with 3 fouls.

14:11 2H: Lobos 56 SJSU 47. A couple of dunk for the Lobos push the lead to 9. Basically the entire SJSU rotation has at least 3 fouls. Lobos will be in the bonus for the rest of the game.

11:23 2H: Lobos 65 SJSU 52. OKAY, Chol! SEVEN straight points, and all of his points tonight extends the Lobos lead to 13 after SJSU cut it back to 6. Awesome to see him step up there.

7:43 2H: Lobos 75 SJSU 60. Hall with a couple of 3s and a pair of FTs to put him at 17 points. Lobos are about 3 minutes away from being able to put this completely out of reach.

3:24 2H: Lobos 85 SJSU 69. Lobos are having fun in PIT WEST and are 3:24 away from advancing to face SDSU in the Semifinals tomorrow. Lobos with 23 assists tonight, the ball has been moving.

Final: Lobos 93 SJSU 77. Lobos move to 23-9 and will face SDSU in the Semifinals tomorrow night. Plenty to come from PIT WEST.