Lobo hoops: Allen-Tovar, Allick put on shows at Cherry/Silver game (slideshow)
Oct. 22—Jay Allen-Tovar knew he wanted to get things amped up early on.
So, he pulled out all the stops from the start of the dunk contest at Friday night's Lobo men's basketball Cherry/Silver game exhibition in the Pit.
The 6-foot-9 forward pulled onto the court 7-foot sophomore center Sebastian Forsling and then another "prop" to jump over.
His head coach, Richard Pitino.
"I was just trying to get the crowd involved," said Allen-Tovar. "I felt like that was probably the best way to get the crowd involved."
Allen-Tovar landed the dunk, clearing both Forsling and his head coach, earning a perfect dunk contest score of 40 and ensuring his minutes this season won't be cut by crash-landing on Pitino.
"It would not have been good," Pitino joked when asked what would have happened to Allen-Tovar's playing time this season had things gone awry. "It would not have been good."
Later, Allen-Tovar's "Silver" squad, made up primarily of players not expected to be the starting five this season, beat the "Cherry" team in a 24-minute scrimmage, 49-48.
"What's been great is Silver has been very, very competitive in all the practices and scrimmages that we've done to where they're not rolling over anymore," Pitino said. "That just shows that you got a lot of competition, you got a lot of depth."
Stats were not kept, but the estimated 1,000 fans in the Pit seemed thoroughly entertained.
"I took this job because of you guys in this building," Pitino said after the scrimmage to fans. "And every single player on this team chose New Mexico because of the best fans in the country, so thank you guys.
"Lastly, don't get used to this many seats being empty this year."
DUNK CONTEST: The six-player, four-round dunk contest was a crowd favorite, even if most probably would have been fine with it being shaved down to just a couple rounds or at least shrinking the field down to just two finalists.
While several players earned perfect "40" scores from the four guest judges throughout the contest, Allen-Tovar was the highlight king from start to finish.
Jay Allen-Tovar, DUNK 1: A risky play here. A dunk over 7-footer AND your head coach, @LoboCoachPitino?
Disaster for playing time if it went bad... pic.twitter.com/pmgF6hPOUi
— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) October 22, 2022
3-PT CHAMP: Newcomer Josiah Allick, the 6-9 transfer forward from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, shocked 3-point favorite K.J. Jenkins in the final round of the 3-point contest.
UNM went with a TBT-format for the contest, having two players go head-to-head each round at opposite ends of the court with the first player to 11 made 3-pointers advancing. Allick missed four 3-pointers total in three rounds of the contest, beating Jenkins in the finals 11-7.
"He's going to start giving me some pick and pop plays. I know that much," Pitino said of the new forward on the team. "But he can shoot. I mean, he really can.
HOUSE CALL: After telling the Journal he didn't plan on being in the dunk contest earlier in the week, 6-foot- point guard Jaelen House not only was in the contest, he held his own with his much bigger teammates.
Taking off from the @MountainWest logo ... @jaelenhouse10 #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/j8z6h4muLl
— Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) October 22, 2022
UP NEXT: Saturday, Oct. 29, exhibition vs. CSU-Pueblo, 5:30 p.m., the Pit
