Albuquerque, New Mexico New Mexico defeated No. 19 San Diego State 88-70 on Saturday, snapping the Aztecs' seven-game winning streak, thanks to 26 points from Jaelen House, including nine consecutive in a 17-0 first-half outburst.
New Mexico (14-3, 2-2 Mountain West) was led by Jamal Mashburn Jr. with 19 points, while JT Toppin chipped in with 17 points and 16 rebounds. For the 14-3, 3-1) Aztecs, Jaedon LeDee had 15 points and Miles Byrd added 13.
The Lobos' 21-for-31 performance from the foul line was the game-changer. From the twenty teams, San Diego State finished eleventh. Also, 14 shots were stopped by New Mexico.
New Mexico's defense was rock solid against LeDee, who was scoring 22 points a game—with over 50% of his scores coming in the last five minutes.
Coach Richard Pitino of the Lobos claimed that LeDee's performance was the result of a collective effort. We had to encircle him. In the first half, they made a few threes off of our assists to him, but they were more successful when he was at the elbow. We were hoping that someone else would defeat us instead of him because he is an All-American and has great speed. Our work on him was excellent, in my opinion.
Lamont Butler, Reese Waters, and Micah Parsons—three starters for the Aztecs—spent a lot of time on the bench due to foul trouble. With five minutes left in the first half, House scored nine points in a row to start the run, which shifted the tide of the game. San Diego State had taken a 35-23 lead, built on two 8-2 runs.
The Aztecs were behind 40–37 at halftime and never recovered. A commanding 11-1 run by the Lobos seven minutes into the first half put them in charge, and they never let their lead drop below ten.
Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher stated, "I thought we played a competitive first half." "I thought our defense was solid. The first half saw them shoot 35%. We packed the paint in an effort to force them to miss threes and tough pull-up jump shots, but they hit every one in the second half, particularly the latter.