Kendall Williams’ 46-point outburst gives New Mexico command in Mountain West

Kendall Williams picked the perfect day to have the best game of his college career. Heck, maybe the best game of his life.

The New Mexico junior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., scored a career-best 46 points and established a new Mountain West Conference record with 10 3-pointers in a 91-82 victory over Colorado State.

Williams' unlikely scoring outburst ended the Rams' home-court winning streak at 27 consecutive games. It was the third longest in the nation entering play Saturday. Williams' also established a new individual scoring record in Moby Arena. His performance helped the Lobos to essentially clinch the regular season championship in the what has been the toughest conference in the nation this season. The Lobos haven't lost back-to-back games all season and now would have to drop three of their final four to give up first place.

Prior to Saturday, Williams hadn't scored more than 14 points in a MWC game this season and hadn't made more than four 3-pointers in a game all year. He previous career-best for 3-pointers in a game was five and that happened just once last season. Williams scored a his previous season-best of 24 points twice in nonconference play.

Colorado State led by three at halftime but Williams was nearly unstoppable. He scored efficiently making 12 of 16 shots, including 10 of 13 from behind the arc. He could have been the second Dvision I player this year to score 50 in a game but he missed five of his 17 free throw attempts. The 17 free throws were another career best.

Williams single-handedly ended several CSU runs and calmed the CSU crowd by hitting big shots. The Rams were leading by seven with just under 14 minutes to play and Williams drained a 3-pointer. With the Lobos leading by three and 2 minutes remaining, Williams hit his final 3-pointer from the deep corner in front of the Lobos' bench. He also played most of the final 10 minutes of the game with four fouls.

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