Third-seeded New Mexico overcomes shaky start to beat Montana 62-57

New Mexico needs big 2nd half to hold off Montana

SAN JOSE, Calif. — After all of Darington Hobson’s big talk about a deep NCAA tournament run for New Mexico, Montana nearly shut up the Lobos right away.

Roman Martinez had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists and third-seeded New Mexico overcame a shaky start to beat 14th-seeded Montana 62-57 in the NCAA tournament’s East Regional on Thursday night.

Hobson added 11 points, 11 rebounds and six assists while playing with a sprained left wrist for the Lobos, who used a 17-0 run after halftime to briefly break open the game after trailing by a point at the break.

Martinez made three 3-pointers, including one with 7:44 to play, and Dairese Gary converted seven free throws over the final 3:36 on the way to 15 points as New Mexico staved off an upset to continue a special season that began with being picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West Conference.

The Lobos (30-4) will play Washington on Saturday after the Huskies beat Marquette 80-78 earlier Thursday. New Mexico is trying to win more than one tournament game for the first time since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Hobson already predicted a spot in the regional final for his Lobos, who hadn’t been in the tournament since 2005 and hadn’t won an NCAA game since 1999.

Montana’s Brian Qvale scored 26 points on 12-for-16 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds, carrying the load on a terrible night for leading scorer Anthony Johnson. He was held to six points and missed his first 11 field-goal tries before his only basket on a baseline jumper with 1:41 to play. Johnson missed all four 3-point tries and committed four turnovers.

Not only did Johnson struggle, but the Grizzlies (22-10) couldn’t even seize the biggest moment of the game.

After Gary missed two free throws with 22.4 seconds left, Montana trailed by just three points — but Will Cherry inexplicably pushed the ball up and missed an acrobatic layin rather than trying a potential-tying 3-pointer.

Montana certainly had plenty of chances for its second NCAA win in five years.

Now, coach Wayne Tinkle will be free to watch his daughter, Joslyn, make her NCAA tournament debut for Stanford just up the 101 freeway on Saturday.

Johnson’s performance was perhaps the biggest shocker of the game. He scored 42 points — 34 in the second half and his team’s final 21 — in a thrilling 66-65 comeback win over Weber State in the Big Sky Conference tournament championship game in which the Griz rallied from 22 points down.

He came in with a 19.6 scoring average — and what a change from his spectacular performance eight days earlier.

New Mexico had its 15-game winning streak snapped with a loss to San Diego State in the semifinals of the conference tournament but still received an at-large berth.

The Lobos were on the verge of blowing this one, unable to put the game away after the big run. New Mexico shot 37.9 percent in the first half and was outrebounded 37-31 overall.

The four games Thursday at San Jose’s HP Pavilion drew 15,427.