Washington Huskies vs. New Mexico Lobos (-4.5) Point Spread Picks

On Saturday in a East Region 2nd round match up the 3rd seed New Mexico Lobos take on the 11th seed Washington Huskies. Nobody really gave the Huskies a shot to do nay thing in the Big Dance since they come from the Pac 10, which was the weakest of the major conferences this season. However, they snagged an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by beating California in the Pac 10 conference final and upset Marquette in the 1st round.

New Mexico has not got a lot of respect even though they won 30 games this season and are the 3rd seed in the tournament. Even though the Lobos lost in the Mountain West Conference tournament they won the regular season and before losing to San Diego State in the MWC finals they had won 15 straight.

In the 1st round New Mexico beat Montana 62-57 and Washington beat Marquette 80-78.

This season Washington is 15-18 ATS and New Mexico is 17-13-3 ATS.

Washington is led by F Quincy Pondexter (19.7 ppg) and G Isaiah Thomas (17.1 ppg), who are the only 2 Huskies' players that are averaging in double figures. If New Mexico can keep these guys from having big scoring games the Lobos will be in good shape. That will not be easy and in the win over Marquette the 2 combined for 37 points.

The Lobos have to play good perimeter defense, as the Huskies shot a 3-point FG% of 64.3% (9/14) and Thomas was 3/5 from deep.

New Mexico has a great backcourt with 3 guards averaging in double figures, but heir leading scorer is G Darington Hobson (16 ppg). Hobson is also the leading rebounder of the Lobos averaging 9.3 rpg.

Lobos' F Roman Martinez (14 ppg 6 rpg) has a tall task in this game, as he has to man up on Quincy Pondexter (7.6 rpg) and keep him from having a big scoring game and also keep him off the glass.

New Mexico did win in the 1st round, but they have to play better in this game against Washington. The Lobos only shot 41.5% from the field in the win over Montana, shot a 3-point FG% of 25% (5/20) and had a FT% of only 56.5% (13/23).

If Washington can make this a high scoring game they should win, but if New Mexico can slow down the pace and make this a low scoring game they should win.

Washington is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games and New Mexico is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games.

Game Prediction

Take Washington