The University of New Mexico said Tuesday that its two men’s basketball games against rival New Mexico State won’t be played this season, a decision that came in the wake of a shooting over the weekend involving one Aggies player.
The teams had been scheduled to play in Albuquerque this past Saturday and then in Las Cruces on Dec. 3.
Mike Peake, a starting power forward for the Aggies, was shot early Saturday after being “lured” to the University of New Mexico campus — where NMSU was scheduled to play that night — by four students there, state police said earlier this week. An altercation then ensued, and Peake shot and killed Brandon Travis, the 19-year-old who shot him initially.
Saturday’s game in Albuquerque was postponed hours after the shooting, and New Mexico athletic director Eddie Nunez said Tuesday it won’t be made up.
“The decision for our part, while we would love to have our basketball teams competing, the Lobos and the Aggies, we felt at this time, that there needed to be a pause,” he said.
Nunez said in a news conference that the cancelation of the home game likely will cost UNM slightly under $500,000.
“As much as it hurts financially for us, it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
No other sports between the schools will be affected.
Peake was hospitalized with a gunshot wound after the shooting.