ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Led by 16 points from Makuach Maluach, five New Mexico players reached double figures and the Lobos put on a 92-71 show against Division II foe Eastern New Mexico in a season opener on Wednesday night.
Carlton Bragg and Zane Martin each added 13 points and six rebounds for New Mexico. Corey Manigault also had 13 points and added three blocks for the Lobos.
“Our team is not lacking for confidence,” New Mexico coach Paul Weir said. “We just have to find a way to harness that the right away.”
Darius Sawyer scored 11 for the Greyhounds and Ibn Zaid had 10.
The game was relatively close through the first 10 minutes as New Mexico led just 20-16 and had only extended that to 45-34 by halftime.
But the Lobos opened the second half with a 16-4 run that gave them control of the game.
“I thought that five-to-six-minute stretch there in the early part of the second half, these guys finally found a bit of a groove and played with the kind of intensity that I want them to play with all of the time,” Weir said. “We just need to find a way to play those stretches a little bit longer.”
Although New Mexico put up plenty of points, shot 60% from the field and had 22 assists, including 11 from JaQuan Lyle, the Lobos also had 21 turnovers, with Martin getting six with no helpers.
“Offense isn’t my concern right now,” Weir said. “We need to value the basketball more, which I think is a little bit more carelessness than it is skill and we just need to value it and respect it more. That’s something that’s easily fixable.”
Eastern was even worse on the turnover end with 22 against just 12 assists.
The Greyhounds out-rebounded New Mexico 37-36.
“We were really keying on the rebounds stats,” said Eastern coach Tres Segler. “We finished the game one ahead of them and that was a big key for us.”
BIG PICTURE
New Mexico opened with a tuneup that allowed Weir to get a good look at highly touted transfers Lyle (Ohio State), Martin (Towson) and J.J. Caldwell (Texas A&M).
For Lyle, it was his first game since March 2017. He sat out the 2017-18 season as a transfer, then missed last season with a ruptured right Achilles suffered shortly before the season.
“It felt amazing just to finally get up and down and just do what you love again,” he said.
QUOTABLE
Weir “getting that kind of talent to play that hard is a skill,” Segler said. “There are a lot of coaches that have elite talent and their kids don’t play as hard as these kids play. I knew they were going to play hard and I knew they were going to be big so I wanted to match that.”
UP NEXT
New Mexico remains at home to face Cal State Northridge on Saturday. The teams opened the season last year at Northridge and New Mexico needed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win 87-84.
Eastern New Mexico goes to Durango on Saturday to face New Mexico Highlands in the Lone Star-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Challenge.
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