Jaelen House scores 18 and No. 25 New Mexico beats San Jose State 95-75

Jan 25, 2024, 06:51 am

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- — Jaelen House scored 18 points, Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Donovan Dent both added 17 and No. 25 New Mexico beat San Jose State 95-75 on Wednesday for the Lobos' fourth straight win.

House drilled back-to-back 3-pointers from the left wing to push the Lobos’ lead to 17 with under five minutes to play in the second half after San Jose State had cut the lead to single-digits.

“We knew we had to stay together, lock down on the defensive end — because it wasn’t so much a problem on offense. We just had to really lock down on defense,” Dent said. “We did that, two transition threes, blew the game wide open.”

New Mexico has won four straight Mountain West games by double-figures for the first time since a seven-game stretch in 2011-12. The Lobos have won three straight and improved to 21-5 all-time against the Spartans.

The Lobos (17-3, 5-2 Mountain West) opened up a double-digit lead late in the first half on a 3-pointer by Mashburn. They led the Spartans (8-11, 1-5 Mountain West) by as many as 17 in the first half after House hit a contested 3-pointer off a crossover.

Myron Amey Jr. led San Jose State with 24 points.

The Spartans cut the deficit to nine with 6:11 left in the second half on a dunk by Trey Anderson. But the Lobos responded with an 8-0 push to put the game away.

New Mexico coach Richard Pitino said that San Jose State's defense slowed down the Lobos a bit by switching all the ball screens.

“But then we just went on that burst in the second half where we started getting some steals and get out and going,” Pitino said.

J.T. Toppin added 14 points and 10 rebounds.

New Mexico capitalized off San Jose State’s 18 turnovers, outscoring the Spartans in points off turnovers 25-4. Scoring off turnovers is top of mind for the Lobos, according to Pitino.

“We get steals and then a lot of them are pick sixes,” Pitino said. “We go quickly off the steals. So that’s the style we want to play. We want to be able to play for 40 minutes with great pace and we’ve been able to show that so far.”

Dent said speeding the other team up, turning them over and then running it back downhill is the Lobos' motto.

“We know that no one else in the Mountain West can really roll with us,” Dent said.

BIG PICTURE

New Mexico, which entered the AP Top 25 this week for the first time this season, should stay in the rankings if they beat Nevada on Sunday. The Lobos have back-to-back Mountain West road wins for the first time since a three-game streak spanning the end of the 2017-18 and beginning of the 2018-19 seasons.

San Jose State has lost five of six games, but their four losses prior to Wednesday were all by single digits.

UP NEXT

Lobos: Host Nevada on Sunday night.

Spartans: Host UNLV on Saturday night.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball