ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It's the kind of challenge University of New Mexico men's basketball coach Richard Pitino wanted for his Lobos in their only exhibition game. The Lobos won a hard fought 74-70 battle against the UTEP Miners Monday night. Sydney Benally commits to Princeton It's only the second time the Lobos have played a division one opponent in an exhibition game. "There is no disrespect to playing a DIII but you know those were two Division I teams battling it out," said UNM head coach Richard Pitino. "It's great to have that game pressure that you can't simulate. It's great to play in front of 10,000 fans, so many positives to take from it." The Lobos started the game with back to back three point buckets from Tru Washington, who finished the game with 17 points. "A team like that is definitely going to get us ready for a UCLA and St. John's because they are scrappy also," said Tru Washington. "The newcomers just need to ingest, they are just freshman and they are just getting used to the team. After Washington's back to back three point buckets, Donovan Dent followed with another three that was followed by a Nelly Junior Joseph basket and all of a sudden UNM was up 11-0. The Miners, who led the nation in steals and turnovers forced per game last season, started living up to their reputation, forcing the Lobos into 13 first half turnovers, on their way to a 14-4 run that saw the Miners go up by a point. By halftime the Lobos had pulled back ahead to lead 36-30. The second half saw the Lobos go up by as much as 14 points before the Miners made it a one possession game in the closing minutes. The Lobos got a team high 19 points from Donovan Dent. Nelly Junior Joseph had 7 points for the Lobos and a whopping 16 rebounds. UTEP's Otis Frazier III was the leading scorer in the game with 21 points. The Lobos will start the regular season Monday when they host Nicholls. The game has a 7 pm start time at The Pit.