The University of New Mexico said Tuesday that its two men’s basketball games against rival New Mexico State will not be played this season, a decision made after a weekend shooting involving an Aggies player.
The teams were scheduled to play in Albuquerque last Saturday and Las Cruces on December 3.
Mike Peake, a starting power forward for the Aggies, was shot and killed early Saturday after he was “lured” by four students onto the campus of the University of New Mexico — where NMSU was scheduled to play that night — state police said earlier this week with . An altercation then ensued, and Peake shot and killed Brandon Travis, the 19-year-old who originally shot him.
Saturday’s game in Albuquerque was rescheduled hours after the shooting, and New Mexico athletic director Eddie Nunez said Tuesday it will not be rescheduled.
“The decision for our part, while we’d love to pit our basketball teams, the Lobos and the Aggies, against each other, at that point we felt like there had to be a break,” he said.
Nunez said in a news conference that canceling the home game will likely cost UNM a little less than $500,000.
“As much as it hurts us financially, it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Other inter-school sports will not be affected.
Peake was hospitalized for a gunshot wound from the shooting.