Raising the woof: Lobos beat San Jose State in front of spirited crowd in Las Vegas

Mar. 13—LAS VEGAS, Nev. — It wasn't the Pit, but it might as well have been.

In front of several thousand Lobo fans waving state flags and woofing the day away, the No. 1-seeded UNM Lobos cruised to a 63-52 win over No. 8 San Jose State on Wednesday in the Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals.

"It's a big help," UNM guard Donovan Dent said of the Lobo crowd that made Thursday's neutral-court affair feel like a home game. "It gives us all the energy we need. I don't think — I couldn't even tell if there was a single San Jose State fan out there because of how much red I saw. Our fans take over arenas and it's a big time help for us."

The Lobos advanced to the semifinals, where they will be matched against No. 4 Boise State on Friday.

Dent, who earlier this week was named Mountain West Player of the Year, had 25 points, five assists, two blocks, a steal and drew eight fouls against San Jose State while center Nelly Junior Joseph added another double-double (14 points and 18 rebounds, including eight offensive boards). Both players helped the Lobos win a game that had the result they were looking for but was far from played to their liking.

The Spartans (15-19), who gave the Lobos (26-6) all they could handle in a December game in the Pit and then upset the Lobos in California in January, on Thursday took away what the Lobos have done best all season: Get out and run.

UNM, which ranks second in the country in fast break points (16.97 per game at the end of the regular season), was held to just four fast break points on Thursday.

"The first thing you have to do, I think, to guard them is get them out of transition," said SJSU coach Tim Miles, whose Spartans on Wednesday beat ninth-seeded Wyoming in the first round for just the second MW Tournament win in program history. "If you just watch their offensive possessions and just kind of don't just watch a game, just watch the offensive possessions and you see how fast they are consistently, game after game after game down the floor, you're just, like, this is bad — this is tough to deal with.

"But then once you get them out of that, you've got the two-man game (with Junior Joseph) and Donovan Dent playing on a screen and roll. He's a maestro. I mean, the way he moves the ball and where he puts the ball. And if they get more perimeter shooting, they could be a nightmare in the NCAA Tournament."

Dent is the first player in the 26 years of the Mountain West history to score at least 20 points and have at least five assists in five consecutive games, a stretch that included UNM's final four regular season games.

While the Lobos weren't able to get out and run in transition like they would have liked, they were still successful on the defensive end of the court, forcing 18 SJSU turnovers, which UNM turned into 24 points.

UNM held the Spartans to 35.7% shooting (20-of-56) and outrebounded them 42-39, including a 17-8 advantage on the offensive glass.

"I think it was a frustrating game for us, but I thought our defense in the second half was phenomenal," UNM coach Richard Pitino said. "Donovan made some huge plays offensively. Nelly tied a record for us in conference tournament rebounding the ball. It was just kind of a choppy, ugly game. And a lot of that has to do with San Jose. But we just needed to figure out a way to get it and advance. And get a little rest tonight and get excited for tomorrow."

Junior Joseph's 18 rebounds is the most a Lobo has ever had in a Mountain West Tournament game (previous record of 17 was held by J.R. Giddens vs. Utah in 2008) and ties the program record for most rebounds in any conference tournament game (ties Lewis Lamar's 18 boards vs. San Diego State in the 1994 WAC Tournament).

Several of Junior Joseph's eight offensive boards came off his own at-the-rim misses, including a bucket with 16:36 left in the game that put UNM up 40-25, their largest lead of the game.

Although UNM outscored SJSU 38-24 in the paint, the Lobos were just 14-of-28 on layups, leading to some of Pitino's frustration.

"We were leaving a lot of points at the rim. Nelly was. I know he's frustrated because he missed some shots," Pitino said. "But there were some of them where he was worried about the refs. Just go dunk the ball. Mustapha (Amzil) missed a couple at the rim as well. I thought that snowballed our attitude. We were really frustrated that we weren't making easy baskets. Well, it is March. It's win or go home. Our guys need to understand that. Some of it was them, San Jose, and some of it certainly was us."

Tru Washington was active on defense for the Lobos and added 11 points and two steals and drew the praise of both coaches after the game.

The Lobos closed out the first half on a 16-2 run, capped by a banked-in Dent 3-pointer from about 40 feet out for a 32-23 UNM lead.

That run continued early in the second half, capping as a 24-4 run and turning a SJSU 21-16 lead into a 40-25 Lobos lead.

Sadaidriene Hall scored 13 points to lead the Spartans.

ATTENDANCE: The announced "Session 1" attendance on Thursday for the UNM/SJSU quarterfinal and the No. 5 Boise State-No. 4 San Diego State game was 8,031.

Individual game attendance is not reported other than the championship game. All others are reported as two-game "sessions."

UP NEXT: Boise State beat San Diego State 62-52 to advance.

The Lobos split the season series with the Broncos, 1-1, with a 19-point win the Pit in January and an eight-point loss in Boise in February.

This is the first time since 2007 that the Aztecs didn't advance to at least the semifinal round. And it's the first time in Brian Dutcher's first eight seasons as SDSU head coach that he won't be coaching in the MW championship game.

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Raising the woof: Lobos beat San Jose State in front of spirited crowd in Las Vegas

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