Udeze leads unbeaten New Mexico past Northern Colorado in Lobo Classic
Nov. 28—Morris Udeze, free-throw sharpshooter.
Who'd have ever imagined?
The University of New Mexico power forward came into Sunday's final round of the Lobo Classic converting just over half his attempts from the free throw line through the season's first five games. Against Northern Colorado in the de-facto tournament championship game, the 6-foot-8 senior drained every one of his 13 tries from the charity stripe to carry the Lobos (6-0) to a 98-74 win over the Bears in The Pit.
Unbeaten through half a dozen games for the first time in a decade, UNM heads to St. Mary's (6-1) on Wednesday night in Moraga, Calif.
Udeze was named Lobo Classic most valuable player, pouring in 33 points with 14 rebounds — both career highs — and had three assists and a blocked shot in Sunday's game. Including the final two free throws he made in Saturday's game, he has now converted 15 straight from the line and upped his free throw percentage from 50 percent to 75.5.
"I feel like I'm going with my same routine, but today it was just flowing," Udeze said.
The Lobos were a perfect 19-for-19 from the line until freshman Donovan Dent missed what proved to be the team's final attempt in the waning moments. If offset a hot shooting night from Northern Colorado's guards, who collectively made a dozen 3-pointers to keep the game close until midway through the second half.
New Mexico coach Richard Pitino said he anticipated a high-scoring game.
"I told our guys that we ran into a team that's worse defensively than we were," he said. "Neither one of us are where we need to be defensively, but the second half we made some adjustments because they were trying to shoot a bunch of 3s so we just switching all ball screens."
Jaelen House was named all-tournament for the Lobos, as was Jamal Mashburn Jr. House had 22 points in Sunday's win while Mashburn had 15. Josiah Allick again flirted with a double-double, finishing with nine points and seven rebounds.
Pitino said he got onto House before the game, challenging him to find the form that has made him into an all-conference candidate.
"That's what seniors need to do; they've been here before, like you move on and you stick to your routine," Pitino said. "It's great to get three wins. We're getting better and better. We're a fun team to watch."
The Lobos had a double-digit first half lead cut to four in the second half before making a habit of dumping the ball into the paint to Udeze. Using his power and speed to create space, he was unstoppable at times as he exploited UNC's smaller interior post players.
Sunday's game also marked the return of Emmanuel Kuac. The swing guard suffered a broken leg during conference play last season and hasn't played since. He's been taking part in practice and has been medically cleared to play, but Pitino wanted to take it slowly before inserting the athletic 6-foot-7 junior back into action.
Kuac got two minutes in garbage time, missing his only shot while grabbing one rebound.
