Lobos take Wyoming to the wire, lose by 2

Jan. 23—The preseason Mountain West Conference men's basketball media poll had the Wyoming Cowboys and New Mexico Lobos tied.

Since then, Wyoming has enjoyed a dream season and has NCAA Tournament hopes while the wait-till-next year mantra was hung on the Lobos long ago.

But for 40 minutes on Saturday night, you'd have been hard pressed to say the two teams weren't pretty equal.

Wyoming stars Graham Ike (29 points and 15 rebounds) and Hunter Maldonado (25 points, 7 assists) carried the load and carried the Cowboys to a 93-91 win over the Lobos in front of an announced Arena Auditorium crowd of 5,368 in Laramie.

Wyoming improves to 15-2 overall and 4-0 in league games. UNM falls to 7-12 (0-6 Mountain West).

For the Lobos, four players scored in double figures, including a career-high 25 by Jay Allen-Tovar, 22 from Jamal Mashburn Jr. and 18 from Jaelen House.

House scored 12 of UNM's final 15 points to keep the outcome in doubt until the final seconds.

With the Wyoming up 89-87, UNM guard K.J. Jenkins came up with a steal. Later in the possession, Mashburn drove to his right and made contact with a sliding Maldonado. One of the game officials called a charge on Mashburn, prompting UNM coach Richard Pitino to erupt and get slapped with a technical.

Wyoming's Drake Jeffries hit one of two, then was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play and hit both of those free throws for a 92-87 lead, essentially icing the game.

"I don't apologize for it," Pitino said in a postgame telephone interview. "That's all I'll really go into. I didn't agree with (the call)."

MISSING: Saquan Singleton missed his second consecutive game with a toe injury. The 6-6 senior guard had started the first four games of Mountain West play.