The University of New Mexico men's basketball team was able to get back in the win column as it put on a show at The Pit against another conference opponent, the Boise State Broncos on Friday, Jan. 17. Coming off of a disappointing 71-70 loss to conference opponent San José State, the Lobos outplayed and outcoached Boise State. The Lobos blew out the Broncos 84-65.
Throughout the first half, it was clear Boise State had no answer for the Lobos’ offense, and a big reason for that was guard Donovan Dent. Dent was everywhere on the floor — one moment making a flashy pass to a teammate, the next doing an impressive finish at the rim. Donovan Dent was just doing Donovan Dent things.
“He is a great player,” Head Coach Richard Pitino said. "We are really lucky to have him."
Dent helped the offense flow by getting others involved, such as center Nelly Junior Joseph, who dominated throughout the first half, as he was hard to stop down low. The offense wasn’t the only thing that was clicking for the Lobos — their defense was just as good. The Lobos’ defense was tough to score on and did not give Boise State any easy buckets.
When halftime rolled around, the defense was able to hold the Broncos to an abysmal 9-25 (36%), shooting from the field going 1-12 (8.3%) from three. The Lobos led 48-21 at the break.
Coming out of halftime and moving into the second half, it was more of the same. The Lobos’ offense had the hot hand and never looked back, hitting shot after shot while they played tremendous defense on the other end of the court.
The Lobos finished the game defensively with nine steals and forced Boise State to turn the ball over 17 times. In the end, the Lobos sent the Broncos back to Boise with a loss.
Dent finished the game with 16 points on 6-12 shooting while dishing out seven assists, while Junior Joseph also finished with 16 points, grabbing nine rebounds along the way.
Forward Jovan Milicevic said he believes the team had a chip on its shoulder coming into this game due to the San José loss.
“Obviously you don’t want to lose in conference at all,” Milicevic said. "We started 6-0 and we lost that one, so we just had to stay on top of it coming in here."
The game plan for the Broncos was also very well-thought out, and it was clear Pitino and his staff had set up a path to win.
“We had to be aggressive with (Alvaro) Cardenas on ball screens. He really is a wizard passing the ball, so we had to take away his vision,” Pitino said. “We really wanted to try and crowd (Tyson) Degenhart. He’s terrific as well, and in the first half it went according to plan — about as good as I've seen.”
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With the win, the Lobos now move to 15-4 on the season going 7-1 in conference play.
Rodney Prunty is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @rprunty05
