New stars propel Lobos
Manigault, Jackson lead way in win over Iona
Seniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis may have been the closers on Tuesday night, but the UNM Lobos moved to 2-0 thanks to a pair of double-doubles posted by two of the team’s new aces in the frontcourt.
Junior Corey Manigault scored 20 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and drew a game-high eight fouls, and sophomore Vance Jackson added 18 points and 12 rebounds as the UNM Lobos beat the Iona Gaels 90-83 in front of an announced crowd of 10,188 inside Dreamstyle Arena - The Pit.
“We won because of those two (Manigault and Jackson) at the end of the day,” Lobos second year coach Paul Weir said. “Anthony and Dane, I don’t want to say that they’re unimportant, but I’m almost (to a point where) it’s a given they’re going to be able to give us something. So whenever Corey and whenever Vance can play the way they do, it’s going to help us tremendously.”
Jackson hit two of his three 3-pointers on the night in the opening three minutes and scored 13 first-half points, setting the tone early for a high-paced, high-scoring back-andforth game that never saw either team lead by more than UNM’s nine-point lead in the final minute of the game.
If it wasn’t Jackson’s all-around game doing the trick for the Lobos, it was Manigault killing the Gaels in
the post.
“Yeah, every time,” Manigault said when asked if he felt he could score or draw a foul every time he got the ball near the rim. “That was our game plan. Get it into the paint and that’s what we did and we executed.”
But the Gaels (1-1), a team that has been to the NCAA Tournament in five of the past seven years, wouldn’t go away, despite the Lobos relentless pressure and running.
And as well as Jackson and Manigault carried the Lobos to the closing minutes, the Lobos needed their relentless pace of play and the help of their two seniors to close out Iona. An Isaiah Still 3-pointer with 2:59 left in the game pulled Iona to 80-78.
On the ensuing possession, Mathis hit a 3-pointer for an 83-78 lead and he and Kuiper combined to score the final 10 Lobos points, pulling away as the Gaels, finally, ran out of gas. The dagger may have been a Kuiper 3-pointer from the corner with 1:52 remaining as the shot-clock buzzer sounded for an 86-80 lead.
“I just told the guys in the locker room, especially the new guys, they probably wonder why we run so much and train so much and do the things we do,” Weir said. “I think the guys on the team last year understand why we play our style, why we do the things we do . ... I think the new guys haven’t gone through something like this where the last four minutes of a game we were able to hopefully allow those things to kick in.”
Asked if he noticed the difference in his opponents down the stretch, Jackson said, “Yes, most definitely. Especially at the free throw line when they’re breathing in my ear. That’s the Pit.”