Uriah Tenette battles for the loose ball in the final minute against the GCU big men 10 Jaden Henley at 6’7”, 31 Nana Owusu-Anane at 6’8”, and 17 Efe Demirel at 7’1”.
Former Prescott Badger Uriah Tenette returned to the state of Arizona in a basketball uniform for the first time since his record setting career as a Prescott Badger.
Tenette is not a starter, but comes off the bench first as the sixth man, averaging 23 minutes on the court and scoring 11 points a game. He has already been a highlighted feature with his play on ESPN.
Against GCU, the freshman scored five points, along with a pair of rebounds and an assist, but impacted the game further with his defense in the New Mexico Lobos 70-64 win over the Grand Canyon Lopes at the Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix. The win snapped a two game skid for the Lobos as they handed the Lopes a second straight loss.
Tenette said, “It was another battle for sure. I don’t mind getting down in there with the big guys. That has never been a problem for me. I am just trying to make plays for our team that will help us get the win.”
The difference in the game came down to shooting and New Mexico opened up an 11-0 lead the first three minutes in. The Lobos made 9 of 16 three point shots to just 4 of 25 for GCU. New Mexico shot 47% for the game compared to 38% by GCU, although the Lopes did out rebound the Lobos 35-31.
GCU Coach Bryce Drew said, “We obviously built ourselves a deep hole to come out of, but our guys had a lot of fight and I thought the crowd gave us a lot of energy during that run to get back and take the lead. It is really hard to overcome with only four threes. We need to make more shots in our home gym.” The loss was surprisingly the third at home this season for GCU who has one of the best student fan bases in the country. The Lopes fell to (8-5) in the Mountain West Conference and (15-9) overall. They will be at San Jose State on Saturday.
Tenette scored his two baskets in a row with five plus minutes left in the first half. The first came on a wide open three point jump shot from the corner in front of the Lopes student section to put New Mexico up 31-15, and then he drove into the paint against 6’7” Jaden Henley, stopping on a dime and fading away for the shot, to make it 33-17. “I have to rely on my quickness and create space against the big guys and that is what happened there,” said Tenette.
The Lobos led 38-18 at the under four minute timeout, but GCU made a run to close the deficit, outscoring New Mexico 9-2 to trail 40-27 at the half.
The teams played evenly for the first six minutes of the second with New Mexico on top 48-35. Brian Moore Jr. and Jaden Henley, and Makaih Williams helped full a GCU comeback that would outscore New Mexico 19-7 over the next four minutes.
The Lopes took their first lead 55-54 after back to back drives to the basket by Williams with 9:28 to play. The game would see-saw back and forth with 6 lead changes for the next seven minutes. Williams, led GCU with 20 point
s found himself guarded by Tenette in the final minute, as the Lopes junior was unable to deliver another basket.
Meanwhile, another Lobo freshman Jake Hall, who led all scorers with 23 and came up with some big buckets down the stretch to put the game away in the final seconds, as he and the Lobos outscored the GCU 9-2 in the final three minutes. Hall said, “Basketball is a game of runs and we knew we had ours coming. We have a talented team with a lot of ways to score.”
Antonio Choi and Tomislav Buljan each added 12 points with Buljah pulling down 9 rebounds. Surprisingly senior guard Luke Haupt, who recently had 30 points in a home loss to Boise State, did not score, which shows the ability of the Lobos to find other ways to win.
As for Tenette adapting to being a Lobo and college life, he said, “I am having a good time here. My coaches are great and have been teaching me from day one. So I am learning a lot. I know my role here is different and I know that I am not going to be the guy taking 20 shots a game. That has not been a problem for me because I understand what is expected and I work hard to achieve that. Coming off the bench has been no big deal either because I am getting a lot of minutes.” About playing in 15,411 seat New Mexico Arena, The Pit, “That place is amazing. When the games are going on and the crowd is in to it and I just feed off the energy. It is just crazy, a lot of fun.” After our chat, Uriah went back out into the arena to greet family and friends, enjoying the moment, and that is really what it is all about.
New Mexico improved to (19-6) on the season, (10-4) in the Mountain West Conference. That concludes the season series between the two schools, with the Lobos winning both, but they could meet again at the MWC Tournament in March. The Lobos will get a little break before hosting Air Force on Wednesday.
