New Mexico basketball, The Pit are rocking again — and Colorado State felt the full force

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The full force of a “New Mexico basketball is back!” statement knocked Colorado State out cold.

Wednesday’s game started well enough for CSU, for about the first 2 minutes.

Then it was all Lobos, a din of noise in The Pit and lopsided as No. 22 New Mexico walloped the CSU men's basketball team 88-69.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Early barrage buries CSU

The Rams (8-6, 0-1 Mountain West) scored the first two buckets of the game to take an early 5-0 lead in the Mountain West opener.

Then it went haywire for the Rams.

New Mexico (13-0, 1-0 MW) hit four quick 3-pointers and ripped off a huge 17-0 run to take control.

"We didn't do a very good job of withstanding that (3-point shooting), and that can effect other things in your game," CSU coach Niko Medved said. "We didn't play with a ton of poise in that stretch. Some of that, you have to credit New Mexico, too. Obviously, it was pretty hard to recover from that."

CSU briefly settled in, but New Mexico’s outrageous 3-point shooting ended the game as a contest.

New Mexico entered Wednesday with the fewest 3-pointers made this season in the MW (63) and second-worst 3-point percentage (33%). Well, throw that out the window: UNM set a season-high for makes within the first 6 minutes.

The Lobos hit open and contested deep balls at an astonishing rate. New Mexico hit eight of its first 10 3-pointers and had 11 makes from deep at half, three more than the single-game high on the season prior to this one. New Mexico finished with 15 3-pointers. Normally a paint-heavy team, the Lobos were outscored 36-24 in the paint by CSU, but the deep-ball barrage eliminated that.

Star guard Jaelen House was the catalyst of it all, scoring 16 first-half points and making all four of his 3-point attempts. House finished with a game-high 26 points, five assists and three steals. Four Lobos were in double figures.

CSU was down by 25 at halftime (49-24) and it was never a contest in the second half. The New Mexico lead grew to as much as 26 and CSU was never closer than within 16 in the second half.

John Tonje and Patrick Cartier each scored 16 for CSU.

The Pit is a fortress again

It’s a reality that a good New Mexico is good for the league.

Here we are. New Mexico is now 13-0, ranked in the top 25 and with the early makings of a resume not only to get into the NCAA Tournament but with a good seed.

The Pit is one of the most famous arenas in the West and a fortress at its best. This one showed The Pit in full voice.

The early 17-0 run created a din of noise that seemed to swallow up any signs of confidence from CSU. That’s what this stadium and crowd can do.

New Mexico’s afterthought football program averaged fewer than 15,000 fans per game in 2022, but there were 15,215 announced Wednesday for the basketball game.

As the name suggests, the noise cascades down onto the floor. The crowd is wise and loud in support. There are coordinated taunts (“Who’s that?” they scream as every opponent is introduced pregame) and constant surges of energy with every Lobos run. One fan was even sporting a "our chile is better than yours" scarf.

New Mexico hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2014, but Richard Pitino in his second year has the Lobos back. It wasn’t enjoyable for CSU in this one, and other MW teams will feel that same force, but it is good for the overall health of the league.

"There's not a lot of places that get (15,000 fans). This is a tough environment to play," Medved said. "Here's one thing I can promise you, we won't be the last team to lose at The Pit this year."

This is a fun basketball environment.

CSU a skeleton crew

Make no mistake, CSU did not do what it needed to be competitive in this one. The defense wasn’t good enough, and some early ill-advised shots and poor turnovers helped the high-voltage New Mexico offense surge.

No one will feel bad for CSU, but it’s also a fact that this was a bare-bones team. The Rams had only eight scholarship players available, with Tavi Jackson (foot), Jalen Lake (shoulder) and Josiah Strong (illness) all out, along with Jacob Jennissen (season-long injury).

Lake’s perimeter defense was clearly missed, and CSU didn’t have any flexibility with the missing players. It also didn’t help that a number of players were stranded at home with the ongoing travel issues around the country and had to make long drives to reconnect with the team.

More:Mountain West basketball teams battling travel issues along with much of the country

Those weren’t reasons for the defeat, but not helpful. This isn’t the ideal version of CSU.

Medved hopes Lake and Jackson will be back soon, although it’s too soon to say if they’ll be available Saturday against San Jose State (2 p.m. Dec. 31 at Moby Arena). Strong is likely out longer term.

Losing at New Mexico itself isn't a big shock, but CSU needs to right itself and get healthier to be competitive in conference play.

"At the end of the day, we need to keep perspective. We wanted to play better, but it's one loss," Medved said. "The train is going to move, and we have to pick ourselves up and be ready to play Saturday."

And Saturday's game? Well, that's the return of former CSU coach Tim Miles for the first time since he left the Rams, and his Spartans are much improved. In the second year under Miles, San Jose State is 10-4 (1-0 MW) and opened league play with a stunning 75-72 OT win over 11-1 UNLV.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: New Mexico basketball shows full force in blowout over Colorado State