Lobo basketball edges veteran-laden Santa Clara in closed-door scrimmage

Oct. 19—They rubbed shoulders at a preseason joint media day event Thursday in Las Vegas — each voted among the top teams in their respective conferences.

Saturday in a mostly empty Pit, they played like two teams that rightfully should be considered favorites.

The UNM Lobos beat Santa Clara, 77-75, in a private, closed-door scrimmage in Albuquerque — each team playing far more players than they would in a regular season game.

No player reached 30 minutes of floor time.

Lobos head coach Richard Pitino, as he’s said after preseason scrimmages in the past three season, said he was pleased his team got to play another team after an entire offseason of playing against each other. Pitino also emphasized there is no reason to look much into the stat sheet, though the Journal — which was not present at the scrimmage — did get a copy and reviewed it.

“I mean, (the Broncos) were good. And I think we did some good things, too, but it’s kind of hard anytime you play almost everybody (on your roster), it’s pretty deceiving for both teams to go down the box score and nitpick too much,” Pitino told the Journal. “So, I wouldn’t look at it like that. I think it was competitive. Both teams are ready to go. … And overall, the best part about it was just not scrimmaging ourselves anymore and seeing it against other players and another well-coached team like they are. I’m happy with how it went.”

The Lobos, picked to finish second in the Mountain West preseason men’s basketball poll, return less than half their minutes and scoring from last season (49.8% and 46.6%, respectively).

The Broncos, in a rarity in the transfer portal era, return 75.3% of their minutes played from last season and 72.8% of their scoring from a 20-win team that was picked third in the Wast Coast Conference — behind perennial NCAA Tournament squads Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s and ahead of San Francisco and both Pac-12 programs playing in the WCC this season — Washington State and Oregon State.

Pitino played 12 of his 13 scholarship players in the 40-minute scrimmage and the 13th plus walk-ons in specialty drills the two teams agreed to run against each other after the scrimmage. Santa Clara played 13 players.

Preseason All-Mountain West point guard Donovan Dent had 15 points, five assists, two steals and three turnovers. He did draw a scrimmage-high eight fouls, but went just 7-of-12 from the free throw line (58.3%), 10 points lower than his career average (68.3%). Dent was 4-of-9 shooting with no 3-point attempts.

Fellow all-MW pick Nelly Junior Jospeh had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, four rebounds, two steals and a block.

Mustapha Amzil, who started at the four spot for UNM, had 15 points, hit a pair of 3-pointers, had five rebounds and two assists.

“I know what I have with those returning guys. I’m not worried or looking to deep into how they perform in something like this,” Pitino said. “What was good for us as a whole was getting some time on the court with so many new faces and it was tight down the stretch.”

UNM has a cold-shooting first half from the outside (1-of-9) and trailed at one point by 12 points before coming back and leading 39-37 at the break.

The Lobos shot 4-of-12 from the outside in the second half (5-21, 23.8% for the game from 3-point range).

“More than anything, I was stressing to them to shoot them more,” Pitino said when asked about the struggles from the outside. “We were passing up on a couple of them that we don’t need to pass up on. So, we’ll have to see on that.”

UNM outrebounded Santa Clara 33-30, shot 44.0% from the floor to SC’s 46.4% and the Broncos’ bench outscored UNM 45-25. Neither team took particular care of the ball, as UNM had 20 turnovers and Santa Clara 23. The Lobos did manage 12 steals.

The Broncos were led by 6-foot-7 preseason All-WCC guard Adama-Alpha Bal and 6-7 forward Elijah Mahi, each of whom scored 15.

The Lobos host UTEP on Oct. 28 in an open-to-the-public exhibition game in the Pit and start the regular season Nov. 4 in the Pit vs. Nicholls before playing No. 22 UCLA on Nov. 8 in Henderson, Nev.

For starters …

With Pitino’s warning of not reading too much into a closed scrimmage, here is what the starting lineup looked like Saturday for the Lobos.

Guards: Dent, Tru Washington (nine points, four assists) and Filip Borovicanin (five points, six rebounds, one block, five fouls).

Forwards: Junior Joseph and Amzil.

Top minutes off bench: North Texas transfer CJ Noland (14 points, 9-9 free throws, two steals in 17:39 off bench)