UNM football, basketball hit the road this weekend
Nov. 13—It's a road show for the University of New Mexico men's basketball and football teams on Saturday.
The struggling football team, which has lost six of its last seven games, faces a wounded Fresno State squad that lost big last week to Boise State at 5 p.m. in a Mountain West Conference matchup. Meanwhile, the men's basketball team will play Colorado in Boulder at 4:30 p.m. The Lobos are coming off an encouraging 99-92 win over Florida Atlantic to open the regular season Wednesday.
First, the football team. The Lobos struggled offensively in the second half of a 31-17 loss to UNLV last week that snapped the Rebels' 14-game losing streak. Even worse, they lost yet another quarterback when Isaiah Chavez injured his ankle in the second quarter.
Chavez, however, is expected to play against the Bulldogs, with Terry Wilson still nursing a dislocated left elbow he suffered more than a month ago. Chavez's return would be helpful for an offense that managed just 38 total yards in the second half and 11 in the fourth quarter to thwart any hopes of a comeback.
UNM has turned to its running attack since the insertion of Chavez into the lineup three weeks ago and had a season-best 260 yards on the ground against UNLV. However, the Lobos will face a Fresno State defense that is ranked 38th nationally against the run and 52nd in total defense.
On the flip side, the Lobos' defense will take on an offense that is ranked 15th nationally. Bulldogs quarterback Jake Haener is 11th nationally in passing yards with 316.7 yards per game and tops all Mountain West signal-callers with 25 touchdowns.
As for the basketball team, the Lobos showed flashes of their potential in beating the Owls. They rebounded from a poor-shooting first half to hit 62.5 percent of their shots in a 56-point outburst in the second half.
Fans in The Pit got a closer look at the transfer guard tandem of Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr., who combined for 44 points in their official debuts. UNM also showed it can hit 3-pointers, knocking down 12 of 23 from beyond the arc for the best performance in 47 games.
Meanwhile, the Buffaloes needed to rally from a 13-point deficit to beat Montana State, 94-90, in overtime to open their season Tuesday. Senior guard Elijah Parquet had a career night, scoring 17 points and hitting a 3 with 18 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 80 and force overtime.
It was a night of career highs for Colorado. Keeshawn Barthelemy had 19 points, while Nique Clifford recorded his best game with 11 points and nine rebounds. Evan Battey was a career-best 6-for-6 from the field in scoring 16 points.
