Feb. 26, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Up Next: Lobos at CSU, 7 p.m. Saturday
Radio: 770 KKOB-AM / Lobo Radio Network
TV: none
Live Stats: GameTracker on GoLobos.com
The New Mexico Lobos (18-10, 9-4 MWC) look to keep pace in the MWC race when they meet an improved Colorado State (9-19, 4-10 MWC) team Saturday night in Fort Collins. Tip-off is 7 p.m. Mountain Time from Moby Arena. There is no TV – live or delayed – for the game.
Picked to finish 5th in the MWC preseason poll, the Lobos enter the weekend 9-4 and tied with BYU for 2nd place. UNM is 5-1 in February. Utah continues to sit atop the standings at 11-2 with three games remaining. San Diego State is 8-5. A look at the remaining conference games for the contenders:
Utah (11-2): at BYU, at New Mexico, TCU
New Mexico (9-4): at Colorado State, Utah, at Wyoming
BYU (9-4): Utah, at Wyoming, Air Force
San Diego State (8-5): at TCU, Colorado State, UNLV
The Lobos outlasted TCU 76-62 on Tuesday night behind the senior trio of Daniel Faris, Tony Danridge and Chad Toppert. Faris scored a season-high 20 points, tying a school record by making all 12 of his FT attempts. Danridge added 17 and Toppert contributed 12 off the bench in a game he reached 1,000 points for his career. Leading just 32-30 at the break, Faris scored 16 points after halftime as UNM pulled away from the Horned Frogs.
Colorado State fell at home to Wyoming 82-79 on Wednesday. Andy Ogide led four Rams in double figures with 19 points.
UNM will face a different CSU team than the one it saw in The Pit last month. Leading scorer Marcus Walker (16.0 ppg) and junior guard Harvey Perry (4.8 ppg) did not make the trip to Albuquerque, however, the Rams could be without the services of freshman Jesse Carr, who has missed the past 3 games with an injury. Carr has started 18 of 25 games and is averaging 8.8 points and scored a team-high 15 against UNM in Albuquerque.
Eleven different players have started this season for head coach Tim Miles, who is in his second season at Colorado State.
THE NEW MEXICO-COLORADO STATE SERIES – It’s game No. 105 in a series that started Dec. 22, 1940. UNM has a 63-41 overall lead, 42-11 in Albuquerque and 37-4 in The Pit. New Mexico won 68-50 in Albuquerque last month.
The Lobos have won 4 in a row, 8 of 9, 10 of 12 and 24 of the past 27 games against CSU since Feb. 12, 1994. UNM has a 16-3 lead in MWC games and is 10-2 in its last 12 trips to Fort Collins.
Last year, the Lobos recorded their largest margin of victory over Colorado State in Albuquerque (91-51) and in Fort Collins (71-52). The results were due in part to UNM’s 3-point shooting (22-39, 56.4%), FG% defense (31-95, 32.6%) and turnover margin (13 to 33).
New Mexico was also able to put the clamps on guard Marcus Walker, who scored just 17 points in the two games. Walker came into each game leading the MWC in scoring at more than 17 ppg, but he was just 4 of 19 from the floor and 0-for-10 from 3-point in the two contests.
Chad Toppert had big games against the Rams last year, scoring a career-high 22 points in Albuquerque and 14 at Fort Collins. Toppert hit 9-of-14 3-pointers in the two games.
NOTES TO KNOW BEFORE THE GAME – Steve Alford has posted 42 wins in his first two seasons as New Mexico head coach, tied for the 2nd-most in school history
Alford is 30-4 in The Pit, 13-2 in MWC games
UNM’s 9 conference wins have been by an average of 18 points while their 4 losses – all on the road at UNLV, San Diego State, Utah and BYU – have been by a combined 19 points, or 4.8 points
Lobos Like 3s on the Road: Surprisingly, UNM is shooting 42.3% from 3-point range in 10 true road games this season compared to 38% accuracy in The Pit…the trend is the same for the Lobos’ top-two 3-point threats: Chad Toppert makes 43.6% at home, 45.5% on the road; Roman Martinez is making 41.4% in The Pit, 44.2% away…freshman Nate Garth is 6-30 (20%) at home, but 9-18 (50%) on the road
The Lobos are 4-6 in true road games this year, and 12-12 in head coach Steve Alford’s tenure at New Mexico…in the five seasons before Alford arrived, UNM had an 8-43 road record…UNM went 8-6 in 2007-08, tying a school record
Dating to last season, UNM is 6-4 in its last 10 MWC road games
The Lobos are 7-0 in home MWC games this season, winning by an average of 19.3 points…in four of those games, UNM held the opponent to a season scoring low: BYU (62), Colorado State (50), Wyoming (57) and San Diego State (49)
The last time New Mexico went undefeated in conference home games was 7-0 in 2005
Including last year’s home win over UNLV, the Lobos have won 8 straight MWC home games…the victory margin in those games is an impressive 19.3 points
Danridge Rollin’: Senior Tony Danridge has averaged 20.2 points in the past 5 games, making 36-62 (58%) FGs and 27-34 (79%) FTs…with 1,154 career points, Danridge needs 5 more to pass Johnny Brown and Charlie Thomas for 18th on UNM’s all-time scoring list
Impressive Numbers for Toppert: Senior Chad Toppert ranks 1st at UNM, 3rd in the MWC and 18th in the NCAA record book with a career 3-point accuracy of 45.28%
And He’s Surpassed 1,000 Points: Toppert scored 12 points Tuesday against TCU to become the 26th member of UNM’s 1,000-point club…teammate Tony Danridge was the 25th Lobo to do so earlier this season…what’s unique about Toppert is that he has only started 28 games in his 121-game career…every other Lobo to reach 1,000 points has started at least 53 games…Toppert has a career scoring average of 8.3 ppg
FG% defense has been a strength of UNM teams under Steve Alford…last year, UNM held opponents to 41.0%, the 4th-lowest by a Lobo team in the past 43 years…it’s even better this season at 40.1%, which currently ranks 1st in the MWC…the last time New Mexico held the opposition to under 40% for an entire season was 1964-65 (36.7%)…opponents have shot just 40.6% (1,241-3,054) in 60 games against Alford’s Lobo teams
Stay in the Game Ro: The Lobos are 13-1 this season – with 13 consecutive wins – when junior Roman Martinez plays more than 30 minutes…the loss was at Creighton on Nov. 16…that means UNM is 5-9 when “Ro” plays 30 minutes or less
Keep `Em Below 60: The Lobos have won 31 straight games when allowing less than 60 points, and they are 51-2 in such games since 2004-05…the last loss was 51-46 at Air Force on Feb. 22, 2006
Only twice in the past 33 games has an opponent made 50% of its FG tries against the Lobos…San Diego State hit an even 50% (23-46) on Jan. 21 and Air Force converted 52% (22-42) on Feb. 11
New Mexico is 4-4 when trailing at half this year, 3-0 at home and 1-4 on the road…the wins came over Southern Miss, Oral Roberts and UNLV…the road win came at Air Force last week
UNM-COLORADO STATE JAN. 28 IN ALBUQUERQUE – Chad Toppert made the most of his first start in almost a year, at one point scoring eight straight second-half points, leading the Lobos to a 68-50 victory. Toppert, the normal UNM sixth man, replaced ill Phillip McDonald. Although he wasn’t at his best shooting, he finished with a game-high 18 points, while teammate Tony Danridge added 16. The duo combined to go 16-for-17 from the foul line. Jesse Carr’s 15 points paced the Rams.
Both teams struggled through a sluggish first half, although New Mexico used a 9-0 run near the break to take a 24-19 into intermission, with Daniel Faris, who finished with 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds, collecting four points in the surge. CSU went the first 12:40 without hitting a basket inside the three-point arc, although it did have three three-pointers.
The Lobos came out strong in the second half, starting it with a 13-5 run in which Toppert scored eight of the points for a 37-24 advantage. At one point he sank three free throws, and on the next possession, scooped up a loose ball on the press and took it in, sliding between two Rams for the lay up. The closest the Rams would get thereafter was seven points.
Still, UNM didn’t make its first three-pointer until almost six minutes into the second half and it finished 3-14 behind the arc.
New Mexico held Colorado State to a season-low 50 points
After hitting just 8-15 free throws in the first half (1-5 start), UNM hit 24 of its last 27, including a perfect 17-17 in the second half
The Lobos forced the Rams into a season-high 20 turnovers…the miscues resulted in 25 points for New Mexico
New Mexico missed its first 6 3-pointers before Nate Garth connected 6 minutes into the 2nd half
UNM-COLORADO STATE LAST YEAR IN FORT COLLINS – Daniel Faris’ 15 points and eight boards helped New Mexico to a 71-52 win over Colorado State. Faris collected his points and rebounds in just 22 very efficient minutes. Chad Toppert added 14 points and J.R. Giddens had 13 for the Lobos, who took a 39-30 halftime lead that was never threatened in the second half.
The Rams hung tough until the three-minute mark of the first half, when the Lobos went on a 9-0 run to take control at 35-27. Darren Prentice and Jonathan Willis sank back-to-back 3-pointers during the spurt.
POSTGAME NOTES FROM TCU
New Mexico improves to 7-0 against TCU in The Pit
After 9 turnovers in the 1st half, UNM committed just 2 in the 2nd
Senior Daniel Faris
season-high 20 points on 4-6 FGs and a school record-tying 12-12 FTs…16 points in the 2nd half (8-8 FTs)
4th player in UNM history to be perfect on at least 12 FTs in a game…Ruben Douglas (2002) and Phil Smith (1981) share the record at 15-15…Phil Abney (1979) was also 12-12…Douglas was the last to make at least 12-12 in a game, against BYU in 2003…Faris entered the night a career 60.8% FT shooter
the second 20-point game of his career…1 shy of his career-high 21 at Hawai’i last year
Senior Tony Danridge
17 points…only 4 games under 10 points this season and just one since December (9 at Utah)
passed former teammate David Chiotti for 9th place on UNM’s career scoring list with 1,154 points
averaging 20.2 points in his last 5 games and 15.5 in MWC action
Senior Chad Toppert
became the 26th Lobo to score 1,000 career points when he hit a 3-pointer with 9:21 left in the game…he finished with 12 points and has 1,005 in his career
a member of the 1,000-point club despite starting just 28 games in his 121-game career…that’s the fewest starts for any player who has scored 1,000
3 of 7 from 3-point
762 of his 1,005 points (76%) have come from 3-pointers; he has 254 career 3s
Junior Roman Martinez
9 points and 7 rebounds
22 points and 18 rebounds in 2 games vs. TCU this year
Sophomore Dairese Gary
7 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds
24 assists and 6 turnovers in the last 6 games
UNM HEAD COACH Steve Alford – Steve Alford, 44, is in his second season in charge of Lobo hoops and his 18th year as a collegiate head coach. He was named UNM’s 19th head coach on March 23, 2007. Alford, who has never been an assistant coach is his career, has a 350-202 (63%) career record in his 18th season as a head coach, 42-19 at New Mexico. His teams have qualified for postseason play 12 times, produced 14 winning seasons and reached 21 wins on nine occasions.