New Mexico Shocks San Diego State to Win Mountain West Conference Championship
The New Mexico Lobos surprised every college basketball fan last night as they defeated the San Diego State Aztecs 68-61 in the Mountain West Conference Championship in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV. With this win New Mexico has clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014 when they defeated San Diego State 64-58 in the Mountain West Conference Championship. This March will be the Lobos's 16th NCAA tournament appearance of all time and while the school has a history of underperforming in the tournament with the fact that they are 8-16 all time thus far and have been upset multiple times, they are hopeful that this season will be their first NCAA tournament win since 2012 when they beat Long Beach State 75-68 in the first round. Let’s take a look at how the Lobos won the Mountain West Conference Championship!
From the beginning of this game, New Mexico looked to slightly be in control as they were up on the Aztecs 18-14 after ten minutes played in the first half. The Lobos would continue to have the upper hand on San Diego State for the rest of the first half as they would head into the locker room with a six-point lead, up 36-30, on the Aztecs. After ten minutes played in the second half San Diego State was able to cut New Mexico’s lead to just one as the score was 47-46 with ten minutes left in regulation. The Aztecs and the Lobos would go back and forth in a close game through the last ten minutes as it was tied 59-59 with 2:37 left in the second half in this one. Unfortunately for San Diego State, though New Mexico would go on an 8-0 run at the end of this one that would essentially end the game. The Lobos were led by graduate and senior guards Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. who had 28 and 21 points, respectively.
Before the Lobos’ surprising conference championship win last night, they were projected in recent NCAA tournament news to likely be one of the last four teams in the NCAA tournament, be an eleven seed, and be forced to play in a play-in game and win to be part of the round of 64 next week. However, with their recent win New Mexico has been bumped up to likely being a nine seed where they will face an eight seed who is closer to their talent level in a much more winnable game for them. Can the Lobos have a nine-seed Cinderella story?
