Exhibition games tend not to be the prettiest games on earth, but it’s hard to ignore a 96-point effort.
The New Mexico offense exploded to nearly 100 points in its first exhibition game Tuesday evening, outgunning Colorado State-Pueblo to a 96-84 victory at WisePies Arena. The Lobos averaged 54 percent shooting from the field, including nearly 60 percent in the first half.
Guard Cullen Neal, making his return to game action from a season-long injury, dropped 33 points on 10 of 17 shooting. He also made four 3-pointers.
Head coach Craig Neal said the team missed some easy shots inside that he believes players will normally make, but the exhibition showing proved what he’s been saying about the scoring potential.
“I always told you guys that I thought we'd be able to score the ball, and I think we've got a lot of guys who can score it. You saw we shot 64 percent from the foul line and still scored 95 points," Craig Neal said.
Though the Lobos came out of the gate firing, they committed 20 turnovers. Cullen Neal himself turned the ball over eight times. No other Lobo had more than three.
The defense was a bit of a concern as well, considering UNM gave up 84 points.
Much of that had to do with matchups against CSU-Pueblo in a four-guard set with many players able to shoot from long range. The Lobos contained the ThunderWolves to 36 percent shooting from the field, but 12 of the 28 made field goals came from the arc.
Those triples let CSU-Pueblo carry a seven-point edge in the first half and allowed the ThunderWolves to hang around throughout the game.
Holding CSU-Pueblo to 36 percent shooting was a good number, Craig Neal said, but his team can’t give up that many points on an ongoing basis.
“I'll give guys 31 percent from 3 if they're going to shoot 38 of them,” he said. “They did a heck of a job. They were 16 of 19 from the line, but if we make our free throws and take care of the ball, it's a bigger deficit. We're going to be all right.”
After Cullen Neal, forward Tim Williams and center Obij Aget scored five points, respectively. Aget also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
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Craig Neal said he felt the high-low play worked well. He felt he didn’t get as much out of forward Devon Williams or Joe Furstinger, but the coach took it in stride with it being the first exhibition.
“I mean, it's the first go-around,” Craig Neal said. “I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged about some things we did but we've got to correct some things.”
Craig Neal played all but three players: center Nikola Scekic and guards Connor Joy and Adam Cumber.
CSU-Pueblo had four players reach double figures, led by guard Chris Golden’s 25. Guard Syrus McDonald added 19 with forward Bronson Moton scoring 13. Guard Will Newman netted 11 points off the bench.
The Lobos host their second exhibition Friday night against Rogers State, with a 7 p.m. tipoff at WisePies Arena.
J.R. Oppenheim is the managing editor for the Daily Lobo. Contact him at managingeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JROppenheim.
