New Mexico vs UNLV Prediction 3/7/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The UNLV Rebels and the New Mexico Lobos meet Friday in college basketball action from the Pit. Here’s a New Mexico vs UNLV prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best New Mexico vs UNLV pick.

UNLV Rebels Betting Preview

UNLV opened the season on quite a choppy run, but they’ve been doing very well since early last month. The Rebels hit a 5-5 start to the year with losses to Memphis, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Creighton, and Dayton, then beat UC Riverside, Fresno State, Air Force, and San Jose State in succession. The next nine games were a 2-7 run with wins over Utah State and San Diego State among losses to Boise State, Colorado State, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah State, Nevada, and Boise State. Since then, however, it’s been a 6-1 run with a lone loss to Colorado State. Otherwise, UNLV has beaten Wyoming, Air Force, Fresno State, San Jose State, Nevada, and San Diego State in that time, giving the team a 17-13 overall run through their first 30 outings of the 2024-25 campaign.

In the San Diego State home matchup on Tuesday, the Rebels came out of halftime with a 34-32 deficit. UNLV got better from there on a 42-33 run and took the eventual victory 74-67 in the end. Tops in scoring was Julian Rishwain with 26 points, three rebounds, and four assists. Jaden Henley added 17 points with four assists, two rebounds, and two steals, while Jalen Hill had 11 points with six boards and three assists alongside two steals. Tops off the bench was Jailen Bedford with 10 points and eight rebounds in 29 minutes of action.

New Mexico Lobos Betting Preview

Over on the Lobos’ side, they’ve done a very consistent job all year with just one instance of consecutive losses in the books. New Mexico lost to St. John’s, Arizona State, and New Mexico State during a 7-3 run over their first 10 games of the season. Wins over Western New Mexico, VCU, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, Wyoming, and San Diego State came next, then a loss to San Jose State. The Lobos would then hit a winning streak over Boise State, Fresno State, UNLV, Utah State, Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, and Utah State before losses to Boise State and San Diego State. Since then it’s been wins over Air Force and Nevada, giving the Lobos a solid 24-6 record across 30 games this year so far.

Matched up in a road game versus Nevada on Tuesday, the Lobos came out of the break with a 41-38 edge. New Mexico kept it up on a 30-29 run the rest of the way and took the win in the end 71-67. The only team player to finish in double-figures was Donovan Dent, who went off for a whopping 33 points, two rebounds, two steals, and seven assists. Nelly Junior Joseph added 15 rebounds, one steal, one block, and nine points to the cause. Leading the team off the bench was CJ Noland with his eight points and one steal in 13 minutes on the floor.

Why the New Mexico Lobos will win

• New Mexico has won each of its last 10 home games.
• UNLV has lost four of its last five road night games against the Mountain West Conference.
• UNLV has lost the first half in each of its last eight games at The Pit.

Why the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels will win

• UNLV has won seven of its last eight night games against New Mexico.
• The road team has won the first half in four of UNLV’s last five games.

New Mexico vs UNLV Prediction

I’ll lean toward the Lobos. New Mexico is coming off something of a strange road win over Nevada this week, with one player (Dent) posting almost half of the team’s points (33 of 71). The 40.4 percent shooting and 37-34 rebounding edge were pretty modest otherwise, but New Mexico stayed pretty steady the whole game. That gives the Lobos 70 or more points in 12 of the last 13 games.

These teams last saw each other on January 25 in a tight 75-73 road win for the Lobos. In that one New Mexico shot well from the field (47.5 percent) but not as great from outside (23.1 percent) or the line (66.7 percent). The rebounding was strong though, so if the Lobos can keep that shooting percentage high in the home rematch they should be in a good spot.