Lobos Blitz Cowboys in Second Half, Roll to Easy 78-58 Win

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., -- After a sloppy win at the Academy last Tuesday, Sundance Wicks was blunt in his overall assessment -- "They better wake up."

He was referring to a 20-turnover performance, coupled with a subpar shooting night from his young Wyoming roster.

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It appeared over the first 14-plus minutes Saturday night, that message was received loud and clear. That is until New Mexico went on a 10-0 run and the visitors scored just a single bucket to close out the first half.

It got even uglier in the second.

Freshman Jake Hall hit three triples -- his only makes on the night -- in the opening minutes out of the locker room and the Lobos' extended run, which climbed to as high as 28-7 at one point, continued in a lopsided 78-58 setback inside the famed Pit in Albuquerque.

Wicks' postgame judgment was harsher than the final 26 minutes of play.

"Guys better grow up real freaking fast," he said during the team's postgame show, following the loss. "... As a player, in a program, that's counted on to do the job, from point guards all the way down through five, you got to be at your best when your best is needed. We had guys that did not show up tonight and we're not their best and weren't even close.

"Until we can play our best against a really good team in this league -- we are fraudulent right now. We are not what people think we are, and I will tell you that over and over again."

Forward Tomislav Buljan, who Wicks said "punked" his squad in this one, led all scorers with 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting and hauled in a dozen rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season as New Mexico moved to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in Mountain West play. Uriah Tenette capped this outing with 14 points and fellow guard Luke Haupt netted 10.

For the Cowboys, who led by as many as seven in the opening frame, point guard Leland Walker finished with a team-high 14 points and was the only player to finish in double figures. Naz Meyer chipped in with nine points but was held to just two made buckets over the final 20 minutes.

Wyoming hit just eight field goals in the second half.

Wicks' bunch has now lost two of three to begin conference play and sits at 10-4 overall.

"Tough players win games," he continued. "We weren't tough enough to go win. That's what I told our guys. They have to start owning this crap, man. I'm sorry, you're coming into this big-boy league now, and I apologize to them. I apologized to my guys. I went straight in there and said, 'I'm sorry for the non-conference schedule. I apologize. I gave you false hope. We thought we could play mediocre against bad teams and still beat them by 15 or 20, out-rebound them, shoot bad, have high turnovers and we thought we were going to walk into the league and just be all right.

"That's going to change next year."

New Mexico, thanks to a career night from Buljan, outscored the Cowboys 40-26 in the paint. Missing five layups certainly didn't help the cause. Seventeen offensive rebounds also led to 16 second-chance points for the Lobos, who won the battle of the boards, 37-30. Wyoming also turned the ball over nine times in the second half.

Gavin Gores, who netted eight points on the night, was on the receiving end of a pair of perfectly-placed lobs from Meyer in the first half, the second culminating in an emphatic two-handed jam. The freshman big man also led the Cowboys with six rebounds.

Abou Magassa capped this outing with seven points and Adam Harakow, who got the start in place of an injured Matija Belic, landed six, including a three-pointer to open the scoring.

New Mexico has now won 20 straight inside its home arena, including 13 in a row in conference play. Wyoming returns home Tuesday night to take on UNLV. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m. inside the Arena-Auditorium.

"Here's the good news, all right, nobody thought we were going to win because they've won 19 straight in The Pit. Bad news is, I did," Wicks said. "I always think we're going to win. I don't think our guys believe that.

"They don't believe enough yet."