San Jose St. faces NM in MWC tourney

No. 10 seed San Jose State (7-23, 3-15) vs. No. 7 seed New Mexico (18-13, 7-11)

Mountain West Conference Tournament First Round, Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas; Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State is set to match up against New Mexico in the opening round of the MWC tourney. The teams split the regular season series at one win apiece. The teams last played on Jan. 21, when the Lobos shot 56.6 percent from the field while holding San Jose State to just 27 percent en route to the 86-59 victory.

STEPPING UP: New Mexico's JaQuan Lyle has averaged 14.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists while Corey Manigault has put up 12.1 points and 4.6 rebounds. For the Spartans, Seneca Knight has averaged 16.9 points and 5.8 rebounds while Richard Washington has put up 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds.

OFFENSIVE THREAT: Lyle has either made or assisted on 47 percent of all New Mexico field goals over the last three games. The senior guard has accounted for 11 field goals and 21 assists in those games.

ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Lobos have recently created baskets via assists more often than the Spartans. New Mexico has an assist on 39 of 68 field goals (57.4 percent) over its past three outings while San Jose State has assists on 29 of 60 field goals (48.3 percent) during its past three games.

DID YOU KNOW: New Mexico is ranked second among MWC teams with an average of 76.8 points per game.

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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com