Dec. 12, 2005
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The 100th meeting between New Mexico and New Mexico State in Albuquerque takes place Tuesday at 7:05 p.m., Mountain Time from The Pit/Bob King Court. The first game matching UNM and NMSU in the Duke City was played Dec. 26, 1906, and resulted in a 28-16 victory for the “University boys,” the forerunner to Lobos nickname.
It’s the 196th confrontation overall between the rivals. The Aggies, looking for their first season sweep since 2002, claimed a 67-61 victory in Las Cruces on Dec. 3.
The Lobos are 4-3 after falling to 13th-ranked Washington 81-71 Saturday in the Wooden Classic in Anaheim, Calif. New Mexico trailed 41-21 late in the first half, but cut the Huskiees lead to 58-57 with 11 minutes to go. UNM is 4-0 at home, but 0-3 away from The Pit.
New Mexico has not lost three straight since Jan. 15-24 of last season (at Air Force, Utah and BYU). The Lobos played those games without senior Danny Granger, who was sidelined with a minor knee injury. The last time UNM lost three consecutive non-conference games was Dec. 1-6, 2003 against Portland, New Mexico State and Texas Tech.
New Mexico State is 3-4 after splitting a pair of games at the University of San Francisco Tournament. The Aggies lost to the host Dons 74-64 before taking out Chicago State 78-63.
The Lobos have won 13 straight home games, tying for the school’s ninth-longest home winning streak and currently the 10th-longest in NCAA Div. I hoops. It’s New Mexico’s longest home court winning string since taking 16 in a row from Nov. 13, 1998 to Feb. 1, 1999. UNM’s last loss was Dec. 22, 2004, to No. 5 Wake Forest, 81-64.
Tuesday’s game starts a three-game home stand for the Lobos. They entertain Oregon Saturday and Alcorn State on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
SPONSORS / GIVEAWAYS – The game is sponsored by Wells Fargo, 770 KKOB and 610 The Sports Animal. The first 5,000 fans receive Lobo foam paws while the first 1,000 UNM students receive Lobo Locos t-shirts, courtesy of Alltel.
NEW MEXICO-NEW MEXICO STATE SERIES NOTES – New Mexico has a 103-92 lead, and had won three straight before the Aggies prevailed 67-61 in Las Cruces on Dec. 3. That means NMSU is looking for its first season sweep since 2002.
UNM captured both games last year in a span of four days, winning 99-80 in The Pit and 84-66 in Las Cruces, the first Lobo sweep in three years. UNM has a 63-36 lead in games played in Albuquerque, including 27-13 in The Pit.
Lobos head coach Ritchie McKay is 3-4 in his career against the Aggies, 2-1 in The Pit.
Reggie Theus was named NMSU’s 22nd head coach on March 29, 2005, replacing retired Hall of Fame coach Lou Henson. Theus spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville under Rick Pitino. The Cardinals advanced to the 2005 Final Four, defeating West Virginia in a classic regional final game played at The Pit.
While Theus is facing the Lobos for just the second time as a head coach, he knows about New Mexico basektball. Theus confronted UNM four times during his undergraduate playing days at UNLV from 1976-78. The Lobos and Runnin’ Rebels each won two games.
The most memorable encounter – at least for New Mexico fans – was probably Jan. 7, 1978, when UNM snapped UNLV’s 72-game homecourt winning streak by taking a thrilling 102-98 victory. Billed as the “Big Shootout,” New Mexico dealt UNLV its first loss of the season as Marvin Johnson scored 31 points while Michael Cooper added 24 points and 15 rebounds. Theus finished with 20 points, but committed seven turnovers. New Mexico attempted 84 shots in the game, UNLV 72.
Theus averaged 15.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in his career against the Lobos. He made 20 of 45 FGs (44%) and 23 of 29 FTs (79%).
Theus averaged 12.9 points, 4.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game in his career at UNLV. He was inducted into the UNLV Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989, and in 1997, he became one of only six players in school history to have his jersey retired by the Rebels.
Albuquerque native and Cibola HS grad Chris Monette is NMSU’s video coordinator after spending the past three years as a student and graduate student at UNLV. Monette’s younger brother, Mikal, played two seasons for UNM before transferring to Eastern New Mexico.
DEC. 3 IN LAS CRUCES – Tyrone Nelson’s double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds and New Mexico State’s free throw shooting in the final six minutes carried the Aggies to a 67-61 win.
New Mexico State squandered a 13-point first-half lead but held on for the win by scoring 15 of its last 17 points from the free throw line. Nelson hit 11 of 13 free throws, including two with 20.2 seconds left that sealed the win. New Mexico State hit 30 of 36 free throws.
New Mexico trailed 32-19 with 2:20 left in the first half, but scored the final eight points – the last three on a 3-pointer by Jeff Hart with a second remaining. The Lobos’ rally continued through the first five minutes of the second half behind eight straight points from Mark Walters, who led the Lobos with 18 points.
But New Mexico struggled to get into an offensive flow all night and hit a season-low 33.9 percent of its shots. Back-to-back 3s by Walters cut New Mexico State’s lead to 36-35 with 15:57 left and a field goal by Kris Collins gave the Lobos a 40-38 lead. There were seven ties before the Aggies took the lead for good on a pair of free throws by David Fisher with 3:52 remaining.
NMSU got its last field goal – a baseline jumper by Fisher – with 6:30 remaining, but the Aggies repeatedly hit free throws down the stretch. New Mexico hurt its chances by missing three of four free throws in the final 1:09. That, coupled with a late turnover by center David Chiotti, an airball 3-point shot by Hart and a missed layup by Tony Danridge, contributed to the loss. Tony Danridge scored 12 for New Mexico.
The loss snapped a 3-game winning streak for the Lobos in the series, falling to the Aggies for the first time since a 67-48 defeat in Las Cruces on Dec. 3, 2003
New Mexico trailed at halftime (32-27) for the first time this season
UNM shot a season-low 33.9% (19-56) from the floor and was outrebounded 40-31
The Lobos came into the game leading the league in FT% at 76.7%, but made only 59% (16-27), the lowest this season when attempting at least 10 shots
Senior G Mark Walters scored a team-high 18 points…he attempted a career-high 19 FGs, but made just five…Walters launched 13 attempts from 3-point, a career-high and the total tied for the 5th-highest in Lobo history…he came into the game leading the MWC in FT% at 88.9%…he was 5 of 10 against NMSU, and his streak of 20 straight made came to an end with a miss in the first half
LAST YEAR IN ALBUQUERQUE – Danny Granger matched his season-high with 24 points and New Mexico hit 12 straight shots in the first half in a 99-80 win over New Mexico State. New Mexico took the drama out of the rivalry game early with a 26-9 run that gave the Lobos a 33-14 lead with 10:58 left in the first half.
After Kris Collins missed a shot in the game’s opening minutes, New Mexico hit its next 12 and was 7-for-7 on 3-pointers through the first nine minutes. New Mexico State never mounted a rally and got no closer than 16 points at 83-67 with 5:16 left in the game. Antwan Alexander scored 15 points and freshman point guard Josh Jenkins had 14 for the Aggies. Jenkins also had eight assists and four of NMSU’s 12 3-pointers.
New Mexico shot 69 percent in the first half and led 58-35. The 58 points was the most by the Lobos in the first half since December 1997, when they scored 61 against Holy Cross. Four other Lobos scored in double figures. Collins and Mark Walters each had18, Troy DeVries had 16, all in the first half, and David Chiotti 11.
DeVries hit five 3-pointers in the first half, when the Lobos hit eight 3s and 20 of 29 shots. So balanced was the Lobos’ scoring in the 26-point run that Granger had only two points.
LOBO HEAD COACH Ritchie McKay – Ritchie McKay is his fourth season in charge of Lobo hoops and his 11th year as a collegiate head coach. He was named UNM’s 18th head coach on March 28, 2002.
He has a career record of 137-131, 54-42 at New Mexico. McKay is 46-12 at home, 35-19 in all non-conference games, 30-7 in non-league games at The Pit and 5-12 in road/neutral games. He is 19-23 in MWC games, 16-5 at home and 3-18 on the road.
The 26-7 record in 2004-05 is easily McKay’s best season, surpassing a 19-11 ledger at Colorado State in 1998-99. The Lobos won the MWC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999. It was McKay’s first trip to the Big Dance. McKay had previous two-year stops at Portland State (1996-98), Colorado State (1998-2000) and Oregon State (2000-02).
ROUGH START FOR McKAY AT UNM – It was a daunting challenging for McKay in his first two seasons at New Mexico. In his second game as Lobos head coach on Nov. 25, 2002, starting senior point guard Senque (sen-Q) Carey suffered a freak spinal cord injury in the first half against Northwestern (La.) State. He was partially paralyzed for several weeks before regaining full movement, but was unable to resume his playing career. Carey’s absence left New Mexico with just eight scholarship players and two walk-ons. Of those 10 players, seven were in their first year at UNM.
Sophomores Jamaal Williams (Washington) and Chad Bell (Nevada) transferred after the 2002-03 season, leaving New Mexico with just 10 scholarship players for the 2003-04. Mark Walters suffered a torn ACL in May of 2003 and never fully recovered until the 2004-05 season. In August of 2003, Billy Feeney, a promising 6-9 sophomore who had transferred from Portland State, took his own life.
The elimination of the 5/8 rule really helped before the 2004-05 campaign as it was able to add five scholarship players, reaching the full complement of 13.
LOBOS PREDICTED FOR 5TH-PLACE FINISH IN MOUNTAIN WEST – New Mexico was picked to finish fifth in the 2005-06 Mountain West Conference race during the league’s preseason media gathering last month in Salt Lake City. Voters were a combination of head coaches and media. UNM was picked to finish fourth in 2004-05, but ended up second behind Utah.
WASHINGTON RECAP & NOTES – Jamaal Williams led a balanced scoring attack with 22 points, and 13th-ranked Washington defeated New Mexico 81-71 to stay undefeated at 8-0.
Washington led by as many as 20 points in the first half and never trailed in the game except for 2-0. New Mexico closed within one point (58-57) on Mark Walters’ 3-pointer midway through the second half before the Huskies pulled away to win the opening contest of the 12th annual John R. Wooden Classic. Walters topped the Lobos with 21 points, and Tony Danridge had 15. Kyle Prochaska had 10 points and nine rebounds.
New Mexico rallied from a 43-26 halftime deficit to pull within 58-57 with 11:02 remaining. Washington then regained control over the next two minutes, as Williams made a three-point play and reserve Hans Gasser hit three consecutive baskets and the Huskies rebuilt the lead to 67-59.
Roy had 11 first-half points to help Washington to its 17-point halftime lead. Danridge scored all but two of his points in the first half.
The Lobos trailed 41-21 at one point, but cut the lead to 58-57 on a Mark Walters’ three
New Mexico has lost six straight to Pac-10 opponents since beating Washington 78-52 in The Pit on Jan. 2, 2000
UNM head coach Ritchie McKay is 3-4 against ranked teams in his UNM career, while the Lobos are 49-110 all-time against ranked opponents
UNM has suffered consecutive non-conference losses for the first time since dropping the first three games in December of 2003
Washington was held to a season-low 81 points…the Huskies were averaging 98.6 ppg entering the game…however, it’s the most points by a Lobo opponent this year as UNM was allowing just 57.3 ppg through the first six games…the last team to score at least 81 on the Lobos was No. 5 Wake Forest (81-64) last year in The Pit
UNM shot a season-high 54% (27-50), the highest percentage in 12 games away from home (57.8% at UNLV last year)
The shooting accuracy is all the more amazing considering the Lobos started 1-10 from the floor, but finished by hitting 26 of their last 40 (65%)
Washington shot 50% (32-64), meaning it’s just 3rd time in the last 42 games that UNM has shot better than its opponent and lost
The 24 points off the bench is the second-highest total this season (51 vs. Ole Miss)…it’s the most bench points away from home since 25 in 81-71 loss at Wyoming last year
The Lobos committed a season-high 22 turnovers, eight in the first five minutes and 14 in the first half…they surpassed their season average of 9.8 less than eight minutes into the game…UNM had eight miscues in the second half
Senior Mark Walters scored a season-high 21 points, the most by a Lobo this season, including 16 in the second half…it’s his second 20-point game this year and fifth of his career…he also set a career-high with 5 3-pointers and tied a career-high with 5 steals
Sophomore swingman Tony Danridge posted a career-high 15 points, 13 coming in the first half, including a pair of rim-rattling dunks along the baseline…Danridge is averaging 13.7 points over the last three games and 10.9 on the year
Junior transfer Joel Box had a productive 13 minutes, setting season-highs with 11 points and 5 rebounds…Box did not miss a shot, hitting 3-3 FGs and 4-4 FTs…he came into the game averaging 2.4 ppg and 1.7 rpg
Junior transfer Kyle Prochaska was also solid off the bench with season-highs of 10 points and nine rebounds…he was averaging 2.4 ppg and 2.2 rpg entering the game
True freshman guard Ryan Kersten nailed a 3-pointer for the first points of his Lobo career…he also had 3 assists in a season-high 19 minutes…Kersten had seen just 12 minutes of time and had not played since getting two minutes vs. Southern Utah on Nov. 20