We return to The PIT Powered by Nusenda for the matchup between the New Mexico Lobos (1-0) and Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0-1). The Lobos beat Utah Tech in the opener by a score of 100-60 with Jake Hall leading the way with 30 points in the opener, while NAU lost their opener at UNLV 89-77 with guard Chris Komin leading the way with 24 points in the opener. The two haven’t played a regular season game against each other since the 2009, but have played a couple of closed door scrimmages against each other. The Lobos lead the series 43-40 and have won the last four meetings. This is a meeting between paces with the Lobos being a pretty fast paced team vs. a Lumberjacks team that is trying to play at a very slow pace. The Lobos will be without Rytis Petraitis as they gear him up to make his debut against either Little Rock or the first road game of the season against Santa Clara next Saturday. As always I will be updating this as the game unfolds and will be updating on Twitter and Bluesky.
Starters for today’s game:
Lobos: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Hudson Mayes, Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, and Federico Grani.
Lumberjacks: Chris Komin, Max Majerle, Ryan Abelman, Lucas Toukam, and Dylan Anderson. Anderson is the former Boise State Bronco when they were still in the Mountain West and played for former Lobo Assistant Coach Ryan Miller at Murray State last year.
15:53 1H: Lobos 8 NAU 6. NAU will have two FTs after the TO. Jake Hall leads the way with 5 FT makes, Tunde with a 3 for the Lobos scoring. Abelman with two 3s to score the points for NAU. Lobos will be looking to get their offense flowing. Max Majerle with two fouls for NAU both that sent Jake Hall to the line.
11:11 1H: Lobos 16 NAU 12. Jake Hall with 7 points and has a FT after the TO to complete the 3 point play. Tenette with 3 fouls for the Lobos and NAU is in the bonus for the rest of the first half. Lobos offense hasn’t been able to find much traction so far today, but their defense has been really solid so far aside from a tight whistle leading to fouls.
7:41 1H: Lobos 25 NAU 12. NAU will have a 1-1 after the TO. Lobos have been able to create some separation from the Lumberjacks. They haven’t really hit shots yet today, but they have put some really good rim pressure on the NAU defense. Jason Eck and family have made it to The PIT for this game and received a nice ovation after the Lobos moved to 8-1 and 5-0 in MW with the road win at Nevada in Reno.
3:02 1H: Lobos 36 NAU 23. Tenette will have a 1-1 after the TO (Jake Hall will replace him after the FTs). Lobos have been able to get some flow of the offense going, haven’t really hit shots from deep but have been able to finish at the rim.
Halftime: Lobos 46 NAU 30. Jake Hall with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals in the opening 20 minutes. Already 50 points on the season for Hall. The Lobos will look to close this game early in second half.
15:34 2H: Lobos 56 NAU 38. Jake Hall up to 23 points on 10 shots. Tenette with 5 points early in the half to put him at 9 points for the game. NAU already with 4 team fouls in the half.
9:59 2H: Lobos 70 NAU 43. Lobos have played an extremely clean first 30:01 of this game. The ball is moving and they have 70 points with 10 minutes to go while they haven’t gotten their 3 point game rolling. This offense is crazy.
7:56 2H: Lobos 72 NAU 48. Tenette will have 2 FTs after the TO.
6:53 2H: Lobos 77 NAU 50. Tenette with the dunk to force a TO by NAU. Tenette is up to 18 points. Howell with 8 assists to lead the way from the Lobos on assists. Lobos went 30+ minutes without a turnover.
2:46 2H: Lobos 84 NAU 61. Imran Suljanovic will be getting his first run of the season. Lobos will be moving to 2-0 on the young season. They will have Little Rock in on Tuesday night before their first true test of the season against Santa Clara on the road next Saturday.
Final: Lobos 94 NAU 65.