Lobos fall to Boise State, lose shot at Big Dance

The dream of an NCAA Tournament bid is over for the Lobos, but the waiting game isn’t quite done.

The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team was eliminated from the Mountain West Conference Tournament with a 91-76 loss to Utah State at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las

Vegas, Nev. The game didn’t end until just after midnight Mountain time.

The best Lobos (22-11) can hope for is a trip to the National Invitation Tournament. Bids for both the NCAA and the NIT come out Sunday. UNM has not participated in a postseason tournament of any kind since the

2013-14 season and, for much of this season, appeared to be a lock for ending that drought by landing a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

It wasn’t meant to be.

Needing four wins in as many days to secure an automatic bid to the Big Dance, UNM was sent packing for much the same reason it had been in several losses this season: porous defense, particularly against the 3-point shot. Utah State (25-7) came in ranked fourth in the country in terms of 3-point percentage, making it a recipe for disaster.

Aggies guard Taylor Funk shredded UNM’s defense with 21 first-half points, hitting four of the team’s seven 3-pointers as Utah State carried an 11-point lead into halftime. He became the second opposing player to score at least 20 in the first half against UNM in the tournament following Hunter Maldonado’s 20 in a Wednesday win over Wyoming.

The Aggies finished with 12 made 3-pointers and survived significant foul trouble down the stretch to get the win. Funk finished with 30 points as Utah State led by as many as 18 points in the second half.

The Lobos got a team-high 20 points from Jamal Mashburn Jr., 14 from Josiah Allick and another double-double from Morris Udeze, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

UNM never led, spotting Utah State a 13-2 run just four minutes into the game.