Dec. 8, 2008
New Mexico (4-4) goes after its first win away from Albuquerque Wednesday when it plays at the University of San Diego (4-4). Tipoff is 8:05 p.m. Mountain Time from the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the USD campus.
KASY My50-TV in Albuquerque will televise the game live throughout the state. KASY is picking up the local feed from 4SD in San Diego.
The Lobos evened their record at 4-4 last Saturday with a scratch-and-claw victory over Southern Miss in The Pit. UNM won 60-58 after sophomore point guard Dairese Gary made a pair of free throws with 4.7 seconds left. Gary finished with 13 points.
New Mexico trailed 30-18 in the first half and 39-28 early in the second period. Senior wing Tony Danridge led UNM with 19 points, including an old-fashioned 3-pointer with 1:54 left that gave the Lobos their first lead since 13-12.
Senior Chad Toppert added 13 points, making 3 of 6 shots from 3-point. The Lobos shot a season-low 38.1%, but held Southern Miss to 38.3% accuracy. USM missed its final seven shots from the field.
San Diego, with began the year with all five starters returning from last year’s NCAA Tournament team, is 4-4 entering Monday’s home game against San Jose State.
The Toreros fell at San Diego State 57-46 on Saturday, but lost much more when senior point guard Brandon Johnson suffered a season-ending injury with 2:24 to go in the first half. Johnson ruptured the Achilles’ tendon in his left heel. It happened just past midcourt when he jumped high in the air to tip away a lobbed pass by SDSU and then scrambled for the loose ball.
The fourth-year senior, who currently leads the team in scoring (13.5 ppg), assists (3.6 apg) and steals (1.6 spg), is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. Johnson scored 10 points before the injury to move into 5th all-time at USD with 1,385 points. Johnson has not used a redshirt year, so USD will look into that as a possibility.
NOTES TO KNOW BEFORE THE GAME
New Mexico is 0-3 away from The Pit this year, 0-1 in true road games (Creighton) and 0-2 in neutral contests (VCU and Drake) played in Cancun, Mexico…UNM went 8-6 last year to tie a school record for road wins.
Last year, UNM’s 4th loss did not come until the 18th game of the season – a 14-4 start – on Jan. 15 at TCU.
It certainly looks like four true scholarship freshmen will letter for UNM in 2008-09: Will Brown, Nate Garth, A.J. Hardeman and Phillip McDonald…that has happened only one other time in the history of Lobo basketball: 1983-84 when five Lobos – Paul Connery, Hunter Greene, Larry Markland, Kelvin Scarborough and Mike Winters – all saw time…freshmen became eligible to play with the varsity in 1973-74.
The current freshmen quartet has combined for 29% (173 of 606) of the team’s points, 32% (93 of 292) of the rebounds and 34% (548 of 1,600) of the minutes.
Senior Chad Toppert continues to rank No. 1 all-time at UNM by making 45% of his career 3-point attempts…with 205 career 3s, Toppert needs 3 more to pass Charles Smith (1994-97) for 4th place all-time at New Mexico.
New Mexico is 1st in the MWC in 3-pointers (8.14 a game) and FG pct. defense (38.6%).
UNM team stats and averages the first 5 games of the season following a 3-2 start: 85.8 points, 51% shooting and out-rebounding opponents by 7.2 a game…the past 3 games and a 1-2 record, the numbers are 60 points a game, 40.4% (59-146) FGs, 58.5% (38-65) FTs and being outrebounded by 4.3 a game.
CHERRY CRUSH NIGHTS AT THE PIT
Lobo fans can stop by the UNM Bookstore, New Mexico Look or the Lobostore at The Pit to purchase an official Cherry Crush T-Shirt for only $7.95. With the purchase, fans will receive one ticket to the women’s game against UTEP on Dec. 16 and one ticket to the men’s game against Oral Roberts on Dec. 17. The offer is available now.
LOBOS / Steve Alford VS. SAN DIEGO
This is the sixth meeting between the two schools with UNM clinging to a 3-2 advantage. Steve Alford has a 1-0 record against the Toreros, the win coming last year in The Pit.
MORE ON SAN DIEGO
San Diego returns all five starters and 10 letterwinners from last year’s team that finished 22-14 overall, won the West Coast Conference Tournament and beat UConn in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.
Playing as a No. 13 seed, the Toreros upset the No. 4 seed Huskies before falling to Western Kentucky in the 2nd round.
The Toreros were picked to finish third in the 2008-09 WCC race behind Gonzaga and St. Mary’s.
USD opened the season at Mountain West Conference member UNLV with the Runnin’ Rebels escaping with a 65-60 victory.
Head coach Bill Grier is 26-18 in his second season at USD. Prior to USD, Grier spent 16 years at Gonzaga, including the last eight seasons as Mark Few’s top assistant.
LAST YEAR IN ALBUQUERQUE
Darren Prentice came off the New Mexico bench to score 14 of his game-high 19 points in the first half, leading the Lobos to a 57-47 win over the Toreros. Prentice hit 7-of-9 shots from the field and at one point, scored eight of 10 New Mexico points in the midst of a game-opening 21-6 run.
New Mexico opened the contest with an 11-2 run and never trailed. The Lobos held USD scoreless for almost six minutes to start the game, during which the Toreros missed their first six shots.
Neither team started well with the teams going a combined 1-13 four minutes into the game. But the Lobos corrected their shooting flaws first, eventually taking a 33-20 halftime lead.
San Diego was plagued by fouls throughout the game, particularly on the offensive end as it committed seven charges – five in the first half. USD got 12 points from Rob Jones.
SOUTHERN MISS POSTGAME NOTES
The Lobos are 35-1 in their last 36 non-conference home games and are 4-1 in The Pit this season.
The Lobos have won 24 straight games when allowing less than 60 points, and they are 45-2 since 2004-05.
After trailing by as many as 11 in the 2nd half, UNM took a 58-57 lead with 1:57 to play on a Tony Danridge jumper and free throw…it was the Lobos’ first lead since a 13-12 advantage 8 minutes into the game…with the game tied at 58, Dairese Gary hit a pair of free throws with 4.7 seconds remaining…UNM outscored Southern Miss 29-17 over the final 16:47 and the Golden Eagles’ missed their final 7 shots over the last 3:36.
The two teams each had season lows for points and combined to shoot 38.2% (34-89)…UNM was a season-low 38.1% (16-42) from the floor, but was 47.4% (9-19) in the 2nd half…New Mexico’s 6 three pointers tied a season-low.
New Mexico has held opponents under 40% shooting in 4 of its 5 home games this year.
The Lobos held an 18-15 rebound advantage in the 2nd half after getting out-boarded 20-11 in the first 20 minutes.
UNM trailed at the break for the first time this season…the Lobos’ 25 points in the first half were a season low.
The Lobo bench outscored the Golden Eagles’ reserves 19-4.
The Lobos held Southern Miss leading scorer Jeremy Wise to a season-low 5 points (0-4 FGs) – 18 below his season average…however sophomore guard R.L. Horton led the Golden Eagles with a career-high 27 points and was 4-5 from 3-point range (all 1st half)…Horton entered the game averaging 9.8 points/game, including 1 in his last outing vs. South Alabama, and was just 2-13 on the year from beyond the arc.
Senior Tony Danridge
Led the team with 19 points after scoring a combined 5 in his previous 2 games…had 10 in the first half and scored 6 in the final 4 minutes of the game…double figures for the 5th time this season and 42nd time in his career…UNM is 2-1 this year when Danridge leads them in scoring.
Senior Chad Toppert
13 points (3-6 3FGs) in 31 minutes off the bench and was 3-5 from 3-point range in the 2nd half…12 straight games with a 3-pointer…Toppert now has 205 3s in his career – still 5th all-time at UNM and 2 shy of Charles Smith and 4th place…this was Toppert’s 4th game this season scoring in double figures (32nd career)…UNM is 3-1 when he scores 10 or more this year.
Also added a career-high 2 blocked shots after entering the day with just 7 in 100 career games.
Sophomore Dairese Gary
Scored 8 of his 13 points in the 2nd half, including 5 in the final 8 minutes…sank a pair of free throws with 4.7 seconds left to give UNM the 60-58 victory…scored in double figures for the first time in 4 games and 4th time this season.
Senior Daniel Faris
6 points and 6 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots in the final 20 seconds…has blocked a shot in every game this season and now has 14 on the year for a career-high average of 1.8 per game.