It’s never fun going to Las Cruces, but the Lobos haven’t seemed to mind it too much in recent years. With their 83-74 victory on Sunday night, the Lobos have won eight straight games at the PanAm Center and have now picked up two straight wins against teams that were in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Oh, and Elijah Brown made sure that the Aggies will be well aware of him when the two teams meet again in a month.

Game Recap

The first half started with the teams going back and forth, for the most part, but some early foul trouble put the Lobos in a tough position. By midway through the half, Tim Williams, Joe Furstinger, and Nikola Scekic each had two fouls, which meant that Obij Aget and Devon Williams were forced to play basically the last 10 minutes of the half with no backups. Because there were so many fouls, the game was a little sloppy, which played more into the Aggies hands than the Lobos. After a three point play by Ian Baker with 8:35 left in the half, the Lobos found themselves down by 9. Then, Elijah Brown came alive. In those last 8-plus minutes, Elijah scored 17 of his 22 first half points, including a buzzer-beating jumper that put the Lobos up 39-38 at the half.

That jumper gave a lead that they never relinquished, as they started out quickly in the second half to extend their lead to 6 points. From that point on, the Aggies never got within three points, ultimately losing by nine. Rather than being carried by a single player like they were earlier, the Lobos got a strong team performance in the second half. Four Lobos had at least 8 points and just about every player who played in the second half made a big shot in a key moment. All in all, while the teams looked relatively even in the first half, the Lobos clearly looked like the better team in the second half. Which they should, because they are the better team.

Players of the Game

As before, I’m choosing my top three players of the game and giving them points (3 for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third).

1. Elijah Brown (6 points on the season): After narrowly taking the top spot in my rankings last game, Elijah left no doubt that he was the player of the game against the Aggies. In fact, if he had just sat out the second half, he’d still probably deserve to be here. In the first half, Elijah basically kept the team in the game, as he scored 22 of the team’s 39 points on a barrage of mid-range jumpers, three pointers, and free throws and generally looked like the best player on the court. He ended the game with 31 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists and probably a dozen fouls drawn. I did have to ding him a little though, as he was the only player on the team to miss a free throw.
2. Cullen Neal (4 points on the season): Although he was having a hard time scoring around the basket, Cullen still finished with 18 points scored on 16 shots. It’s only two games, but he and Elijah are both averaging over 20 ppg, which will give them the deserved reputation as being a dangerous offensive backcourt. I did find it interesting that because the Aggies were focusing so much attention on him, Cullen was moved off the ball in the second half. Part of that was probably because having the offense go through Elijah certainly made sense with the way he was playing, but I also think that just the threat of Cullen being on the court will open up space for the other guys. That seemed to be the case last night.
3. Sam Logwood (1 point on the season): After a first half in which he nearly disappeared, Sam came out strong in the second half to collect 9 points and three rebounds, including a couple of huge threes late in the game to seal the win for the Lobos. He also ramped up his intensity on the defensive end of floor, contesting a few Aggies at the rim. All in all, he looked like the guy who I thought before the season started could make an all-conference team. I’m still on the Sam Logwood bandwagon, so it was good to see that out of him.

Scattered Thoughts

• There was a scary moment about halfway through the second half when Devon Williams collapsed on the floor face-down and didn’t move. Reports are that he suffered a spinal contusion and that he’s moving around right now, so hopefully he can make a full recovery. Devon became one of my favorite players last year by coming out and I think that he exemplifies what a Lobo should be, so I hated to see him on the floor like that and hope that he makes a full recovery.
• All of the freshmen saw some action yesterday and while we didn’t get to see a lot of them, I think that there were some good takeaways. Anthony Mathis again showed that he’s going to be fearless shooting the ball and although he hasn’t made one in the two games so far, those shots are going to start falling sooner than later. Dane Kuiper keeps living up to the reputation of being a guy who has solid fundamentals and a good grasp on the game who isn’t fazed by pressure. Nikola is still really big, which means that he’ll get called for breathing on another player, but I thought he was doing a good job of getting in position on offense and boxing out on defense. Jordan Hunter hit a big three-pointer and showed good composure against the Aggie pressure, which is great to see out of a freshman point guard. I don’t know how much Noodles was planning on playing the freshmen this game, but I have to think that each of them gave him a little more confidence in them.
• Something that really separated the two teams was the way they shot the ball, namely from three and from the free throw line. The Lobos shot 41.2% from range, compared to the 20.8% that the Aggies shot, and a ridiculous 95.7% from the charity stripe, compared to the Aggies 73.1%. The Aggies did do well in the paint, mostly thanks to Pascal Siakam, but I think that the Lobos have to feel good with how their perimeter defense has been in these first couple of games.

Up Next

The Lobos head back to Albuquerque to take on Loyola University Chicago this Wednesday as part of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. The MWC is currently up 2-1 (although there’s a game tonight between Wyoming and Indiana State, so that will change by Wednesday), so the Lobos look to do their part to prove they’re in the better mid-major conference.