Mixed bag in the Pit: Lobos rally late but fall to Arizona State

The first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes of Sunday’s exhibition game for the UNM Lobos looked fairly good for the home team.The middle 20 minutes looked pretty worrisome.In the end, Arizona State hit 16 of 41 3-pointers and UNM’s second-year scoring sensation Jake Hall went just 3-for-13 from beyond the arc in a 91-86 Lobos loss in front of an announced crowd of 7,447 in the Pit.And depending on what part of the game or stat sheet you look at, you might have very differing opinions of what the big picture takeaway for the home team should be.For second-year UNM coach Eric Olen, who clearly would have preferred a win, he said he left Sunday “more encouraged” than discouraged because he saw his team doing what was asked — getting the shots they wanted, mostly, and forcing a much bigger ASU roster to, for the most part, play their game out on the perimeter.Sure, he would rather the Sun Devils not have hit 16 of 41 3-pointers, but that many 3s was actually by design for the Lobos’ defense.“I think when you play the best teams, I think it’s important to dictate the terms,” Olen said. “Our plan going in was to force them to shoot a lot of 3s. We wanted them to have high volume from 3. We would have liked to have a little more volume ourselves (UNM hit 8 of 23 3-pointers and was outscored 48-24 at the 3-point line). They made some shots, and we missed some shots, and that’s kind of going to happen.“(But) our communication to our team throughout was stay with the plan, don’t deviate, don’t overreact to shot making. ... So yeah, I’m encouraged that they shot 41 3s. I think that’s a good sign for us going forward.”While Arizona State was clearly the bigger, more physical team the Lobos did outrebound them (36-35) and outscore them in the paint 46-18 — things the game plan was attempting to achieve.And when it was working its best, the Lobos did jump out to a 19-12 lead with 9:32 showing on the first half clock.To that point, Hall, who scored 31 and 22 points in the team’s first two exhibition games, was just 1-for-5 shooting with two turnovers. But most of his shots were surprisingly open looks and more than a few throghout the night were, for Lobo fans, the type of agonizing in-and-out sort of misses that Olen, nor many of those fans, seemed to be overly concerned about long term.In fact, asked if Hall’s rough start to the game gave him any inclination to start looking for other primary offensive options, Olen laughed.“No,” Olen said with a chuckle. “I wish he could have shot it 29 times. ...“He had three turnovers, so he’s got to do a better job there. I think that’s a good defensive team. They make things difficult. So maybe it took us a minute to adjust some of their physicality, but no, we at no point considered not trying to get Jake more shots, and at no point during the season will we consider not trying to.”As he’s said before, offense isn’t the concern for Olen this season.Sunday, Hall still ended up with 19 points while three other Lobos joined him in double-digit scoring — Uriah Tenette (17 points, three assists and five rebounds), Hudson Mayes (17 points and at least two highlight reel dunks over Arizona State defenders trying, and failing, to block him) and freshman Dax Hall, Jake’s younger brother, (11 points, four assists, two steals off the bench).@hudson_mayes pic.twitter.com/JAZrAdFzpr— Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) October 25, 2026But, despite that 19-12 early lead over the first 10 or so minutes, the Sun Devils made the next 20 minutes miserable for the Lobos.It started with a 16-0 ASU run for a 28-19 lead that ballooned by midway through the second half to 23 points at 75-52. In all, the middle “half” of the game (from 9:32 1st half to 9:05 2nd half) the Sun Devils beat UNM 63-33.UNM, with a guard-heavy lineup to try and mount a come back, size deficiencies be damned, managed to close the game’s final 9 minutes outscoring ASU 34-16.For the visiting Sun Devils, 6-foot-8 Lithuanian forward Paulius Marauskas finished with a 31 points and hit 7 of 10 3-pointers, and Dillan Shaw added 22 points with five made 3s.“The biggest thing that we want to do out of these exhibitions is take the film and the feedback and then improve on it,” Olen said. “So we need to take another step this coming week.”UNM went 2-1 in preseason play, beating the Big 12’s Oklahoma State 99-89 in Stillwater and the Pac-12’s Washington State 92-64 in the Pit last week.Still outRytis Petraits, the transfer forward from Cal, missed Sunday’s game with an ankle sprain. He also missed last week’s exhibition against Washington State and the Lobos said then it was only as a precaution. The injury, Eric Olen said, still isn’t considered major, but didn’t really improve over the past week, thus no game for Petraitis, who did play in the Oct. 11 preseason win at Oklahoma State.Familiar faceTyler McCulloch, ASU’s new associate head coach for sports performance, is a 2011 Eldorado High graduate and four-year receiver at Colorado.Sunday, aside from having plenty of family and friends on hand to see his new team (he was hired two months ago at ASU), he made sure to give his team a taste of home.After Sunday’s game, he oversaw the ordering of aboug 25 Dion’s pizzas — “I got seven or eight of them to try the green chile/pepperoni” — and about a half-dozen subs for the team’s postgame meal before hitting the airport and back home to Tempe.About Saturday night...Olen opened Sunday’s postgame presser with football, and fan, talk.“First of all, congrats to Lobo football, coach (Jason) Eck, and everybody on that win (Saturday) night,” Olen said. “The environment there was awesome, and we appreciate everyone who stayed up late and then came back here today because we felt the crowd today, too. And so, shout out to Lobo football, and we appreciate all the fans who came to both.”Up nextThe Lobos open the regular season in the Pit against Utah Tech at 7 p.m. Nov. 2. That game will be streamed on the MW+ and broadcast on radio (Sunday’s game was not) on FM-96.3 FM/AM-770.Geoff Grammer is the Sports Editor of the Journal, a podcaster, columnist and covers UNM Lobos basketball, among other things. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.More UNM men's basketball coverage*Arizona St. coach Randy Bennett has high praise for former player Chris Howell as Sun Devils visit the PitLobos wrap up preseason with Big 12's Sun Devils*Football-loving Olen, Lobos put final touches on preseason prep; Rytis Petraitis still injuredUNM hosts Arizona St. in key preseason test while forward Petraitis remains sidelined with an ankle sprain*Olen pleased with 'collective' effort on glass in Washington State blowoutUNM’s work on the glass improved sharply against Washington State after Oklahoma State exposed early concerns*Offense shines, Lobos shut down overmatched Washington State in preseason blowoutNew Mexico used balanced scoring, sharp 3-point shooting and improved rebounding in an exhibition at the Pit*Hall, Lobos return to the Pit with Sunday exhibition game vs. CougarsNew Mexico hosts Washington State as the Lobos continue their preseason schedule*Olen happy Lobos scored 99 at Oklahoma State, but far more focused on 89 they allowedDespite UNM's 99-point exhibition victory at Oklahoma State, coach Eric Olen is focused on rebounding, transition defense and costly mistakes.*Lobo hoops notebook: Well ahead of opener, UNM hoops season tickets already top last year's totalUNM has sold 8,720 men’s basketball season tickets ahead of the Nov. 2 opener, surpassing last season’s total*Lobos learn rebounding, travel issues much easier to deal with after putting up 99 points on the roadNew Mexico scored 99 points in Stillwater while coach Eric Olen identified rebounding as a key preseason concern*Hall goes off and Lobos end Cowboys’ 57-game preseason streakSophomore guard scores 31 points in very early road test at Oklahoma State's Gallagher-Iba Arena*Already game time? Eric Olen's Lobos get to try some things out in exhibition game at Oklahoma StateUNM will use Sunday’s road exhibition against the Cowboys to evaluate lineups and build game-ready chemistry*New faces shine, unlikely heroes emerge from Lobo Howl season tipoff in the PitHudson Mayes and Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi won contests as Lobo basketball introduced new faces at the Pit*Lobo Howl was coming out party for Tenette, Hall a year ago. Friday, they're back for more.The defending dunk contest winner and prolific 3-point shooter lead Friday’s free Lobo Howl at the Pit.*Coaches praise Lobos' Eric Olen at MW Media DaysUNM enters the season as the preseason favorite as league confronts roster uncertainty*Lobos (narrowly) picked as preseason favorites; Jake Hall voted Player of YearSeveral conference teams awaiting clarity on player eligibility*Lobos finalize hoops schedule, a look at Howl details, and NIT-picking new postseason formatUNM's pre-Christmas week in Southern California likely lands then three Quad 2 games in five days all without travel in between