New Mexico shrugs off Fresno, awaits Boise in semis

They’ve cut down the nets the past two years at the Thomas &Mack Center, and the New Mexico Lobos appear poised for another climb up the ladder come Saturday.

The No. 2 seed flexed its muscles Thursday night in the Mountain West tournament quarterfinals, handling Fresno State 93-77 to advance to an 8:30 p.m. semifinal matchup today against sixth-seeded Boise State.

New Mexico quickly recovered from Saturday’s 51-48 loss to San Diego State that cost the Lobos the regular-season title.

“In this tournament, every game is like a championship game,” Lobos coach Craig Neal said. “I liked the way our guys responded.”

New Mexico (25-6) sprinted to a 14-3 lead less than five minutes in to effectively put away the Bulldogs (17-16).

Inside players Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk scored 21 points each, and Bairstow had 10 rebounds for the Lobos. Kendall Williams finished with 17 points and nine assists, and fellow guard Hugh Greenwood had eight points and eight rebounds.

“We knew we had a mismatch down there, and we did a good job of handling their trap,” Bairstow said. “It was good to clear our heads after that loss.”

Williams said: “It’s nice that we can respond to losses. We have really good leadership, and I like the vibe of this team. We’re locked in.”

Reserve Allen Huddleston led Fresno State with 18 points.

■ San Diego State 73, Utah State 39 — Less than 24 hours after Boise State set a conference tournament record for largest margin of victory in its 31-point win over San Jose State, the top-seeded Aztecs broke it by limiting eighth-seeded Utah State to 15 first-half points and 29 percent shooting from the field overall.

“We played really, really good basketball, keyed by how we defended them,” Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said. “We wanted to make it very difficult for them to get uncontested threes, and we did.”

The Aggies (18-14) were 1-for-10 on 3-point attempts.

Xavier Thames had 15 points and seven assists for the eighth-ranked Aztecs (28-3), and former Findlay Prep standout Winston Shepard scored 13.

Josh Davis had eight points, 13 rebounds and six steals for San Diego State, which had a season-high 19 assists.

Jarred Shaw led Utah State with 14 points.

■ Boise State 75, UNR 62 — The Broncos opened the second half with a 15-0 run and held off the third-seeded Wolf Pack to advance to the semifinals.

UNR (15-17) had rallied from 11 down in the first half to lead 32-28 before being tied at intermission 32-32. Then the Broncos hit the Wolf Pack with the big run.

But once again, UNR, which was led by Deonte Burton’s 22 points, came back, tying the game at 56 with just under six minutes remaining.

However, the Broncos outscored UNR 19-6 over the last six minutes to advance.

Anthony Drmic led Boise State (21-12) with 17 points.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.