In their first weekend of the season, the Lobos hosted two teams that they were expected to beat comfortably. And while the games themselves weren’t always completely comfortable, the Lobos ended up coming away with two double-digit wins. In those games, we got to watch Tim Williams dominate, the new guys show their stuff, and Sam potentially take a leap. All in all, not a bad weekend.

Game 1: Idaho State, 81-70 Win

In the first real game of the season, the Lobos gave their fans a bit of a scare in the first half, finding themselves down by double-digits midway through the half. This was due to the poor shooting by the Lobos (10-30 from the field, including 2-11 from three) and the good shooting by ISU (13-26 from the field, including 6-12 from three). That’s not a winning combination for the Lobos, to say the least. The Lobos started to show signs of life towards the end of the half, punctuated by a sequence where Sam Logwood was fouled hard in the lane and a fight nearly broke out. After a very long official review, the Lobos ended up with two technicals, while the Bengals ended up with one of their own to go along with an ejected player. The Lobos might have gone up the ramp at halftime down by 6, but they came back down mad and ready to finish ISU off.

And that’s exactly what they did in the second half. They basically abandoned the three point line and just kept attacking the rim, which was extremely effective. They shot 70.8% from two point range and ended up scoring 49 points in the half overall, turning a 6 point deficit into an 11 point win. They also grabbed almost twice as many rebounds as the Bengals in the second half, 21-11. In short, the second half was closer to what we were maybe expecting to see the whole game, with the Lobos clearly being the superior team.

Players of the Game

(For each game, we pick out who we think were the top three Lobos, awarding 3 points to the top performer, 2 to the second, and 1 to the third. We keep track of the points all season and will use them to determine our player of the year)

1. Sam Logwood (3 points on the season): In the first game of the season, Sam made us start to consider if the Lobos’ big two was actually a big three. He finished with a career-high 20 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists thanks to his assertiveness on the court, particularly on the offensive end. He also had one play where he jumped about three feet higher than anyone else on the court (estimated) to grab a ball out of the air. He was all sorts of fun to watch in this one.
2. Tim Williams (2 points on the season): Tim had one of his patented double-doubles where you can barely remember a single basket that he scored. He’s not flashy, but he’s efficient. I think that’s mostly because he knows who he is and he doesn’t try to get away from that. That might mean that he doesn’t have a ton of highlight-reel types of plays, but he is going to be consistently, quietly dominant.
3. Xavier Adams (1 point on the season): X didn’t put up particularly eye-popping numbers in this game, but it is undeniable the impact his energy had on the game. He spent his 14 minutes flying around the court, grabbing offensive boards, diving for loose balls, and getting into ISU players’ faces. He’s very quickly becoming the sort of player that you love to have on your team, but you know that opposing fans are going to hate him.

Game 2: Houston Baptist, 95-79 Win

This game was almost the complete opposite of the Idaho State, at least in terms of how the Lobos played generally (it’s not like they started playing baseball out there or something). The Lobos started out with a strong first half, using their advantage down low to shoot an incredible 72% from the field and to outrebound the Huskies 18-10. They stretched their lead out to as many as 20 points late in the first half, allowing the Pit crowd to settle into a nice, relaxed state going into the half.

The second half, however, started out terribly. The Lobos didn’t score at all in the first 2:34 of the half, and didn’t make their first basket until almost five minutes had gone by. In that time, HBU went on a 10-3 run to cut the Lobo lead down to 12 and giving Lobo fans a flashback to last year’s Rice game. From that point on, the Lobos were able to regain control of the game. Although they were never able to build the lead back to 20 points, they never let the Huskies get within 10. It was good that the Lobos were able to regain their footing on offense, as they had a hard time stopping HBU on defense, allowing them to score 48 points.

Players of the Game

1. Tim Williams (5 points on the season): Tim was an absolute monster in this game, finishing with 31 points on 10-11 shooting and 11 rebounds. He also fouled out HBU’s entire frontline, forcing them to play small for the last few minutes of the game. In doing so, he shot a bunch of free throws, where he went 11-12. He’s going to be a nightmare to guard for most teams, so the Lobos will need to just keep feeding the beast.
2. Jalen Harris (2 points on the season): After an appearance in the first game that could be generously called a cameo, thanks to foul trouble, Jalen settled in and had a great game against HBU. He showed off his excellent speed, a nice jumper in the lane, and even the ability to hit an open three. Based on what we saw out of him in this game, I think I’ll feel pretty comfortable with either Jalen or Jordan Hunter on the court, and having two good point guards is a luxury we haven’t seen in a while.
3. Sam Logwood (4 points on the season): While he didn’t put up the same sorts of numbers as the first game, I still really liked what I saw out of Sam. Aside from the improvements he’s made by just being more aggressive, he simply looks more comfortable on the court than ever. To me, that’s a sign that he’s developing into the type of veteran leader that the team needs him to be.

Scattered Thoughts

• Elijah is clearly shaking off the rust, which is unsurprising given how much practice he’s missed out on, but the Lobos will need him to come around soon. With NMSU coming to town on Friday and the Wooden Legacy next week, it’s hard to see the Lobos having as much success as I think they’re capable of if he’s not playing at the level that we’ve come to expect. The good news is that he’ll have a few days of practice to work on getting his timing down, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing him put up big numbers again soon.
• The defense has been a mixed bag so far, as they’ve done some things well (such as forcing turnovers and limiting free throws), but they’ve struggled in other areas (particularly in allowing three pointers). ISU shot 22 threes and made 40.9% of them while HBU shot 30 threes and made 43.3% of them. The HBU game particularly sticks out, as that’s not really the way they typically play. However, they decided that was the best way to attack the Lobos and it worked pretty well, as they were able to stay in the game far longer than they likely would have otherwise. Now, how much of the defensive issues are caused by things like the large rotation or just the Lobos easing up off the gas once they took a big league, we can’t say for sure. But, we should get a better idea over the next couple of weeks.

Up Next

This Friday, NMSU makes the trip up to Albuquerque for their first of two matchups between the teams this year. The Aggies are starting a new era under a new coach, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be a tough opponent.