Jan. 19, 2012
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New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In The Pit
Wednesday: San Diego State Aztecs 75, New Mexico Lobos 70
Saturday: 8 p.m. (MT), New Mexico Lobos at UNLV Rebels
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
Maybe the Lobo knockout punch came too early — kind of like a boxer who decks his opponent in the first round and then expects the big blows to keep finding open chins.
“The start was great, a lot of energy. Then we got complacent,” said Lobo Coach Steve Alford after his Lobos were shocked 75-70 Wednesday night in The Pit by the relentless No. 16 ranked San Diego State Aztecs.
Alford said, “I give San Diego State a lot of credit,” and you have to. The Aztecs got knocked to the canvas in the first round, down 10-0, scrambled back to their feet, absorbed a lot more punches from both Lobos and The Pit, and still escaped with a huge Mountain West win.
“We appeared to be on the verge of being blown out,” said SDSU Coach Steve Fisher.
Yeah, it kind of looked that way, but these Aztecs (16-2, 2-0 MW) burst into The Pit with a No. 16 ranking and coming off a win over then-No. 12 UNLV and that type of team usually doesn’t roll over.
The Aztecs got up off the canvas, hung around, trailed 31-30 at the half, went up 49-48 at the 11:39 mark, and never looked back. The Aztecs trailed 48-44 after a Lobo 3-pointer by Phillip McDonald and then threw out a 15-0 run to lead 59-48 with 7:10 to play.
“In that run, they did a really good job in staying poised,” said McDonald.
San Diego State was up 64-51 with 3:41 to play and up 69-59 with 50 seconds to go. The Aztecs gave Lobos fans (15,411) a small ray of hope by missing some free throws down the stretch, but the finish on this Pit win probably was there at 64-51. UNM’s Kendall Williams dropped in a long trey at the buzzer to make it a five-point loss.
“San Diego State did a really good job defensively and I thought we shot too many threes,” said Alford. “In our drought (0-15), we didn’t guard very well and I thought we took way too many jump shots.”
The Lobos (15-3, 1-1 MW) launched 31 times from behind the line, making 13 for 39 points. The trouble with that strategy is that it didn’t place Lobos at the free-throw line. UNM went 3-of-7 from the line while SDSU went 12-of-15 picking up a lot of free throws late on intentional fouling by UNM.
The Lobos had four players in double figures – McDonald (20), Williams (16), Drew Gordon (15) and Jamal Fenton (10) – but UNM got only nine points after that. SDSU was led by Xavier Thames with 22 points while Jamaal Franklin and Chase Tapley each had 12 points.
“I thought he was the difference in the game,” Alford said of Thames, who was 7-of-11 from the floor, 3-of-5 from long range and 5-of-5 from the line. Thames had four assists and one turnover. “We wanted their bigs to have to do more scoring,” said Alford, “and that didn’t happen.”
Coach Steve Alford – Not Happy With a Call |
The Aztecs did a lot of scoring one-on-one off screens – or long range. SDSU had 14 assists to 22 for the Lobos. SDSU shot 53.6 percent in the second half and 48.2 percent for the game. UNM shot 39.1 percent. UNM won the board battle 42-37 and SDSU won the turnover battle 9-6 behind seven Aztec steals.
The loss snapped UNM’s 13-game win streak and sends them to UNLV on Saturday trying to make up for a home loss.
“It was a great run, a great streak and now we have to try and start again,” said Alford. “I thought San Diego State did a lot of good things in the second half physically and we didn’t adjust very well to it.
“We were pretty poor offensively in the second half and we allowed that to affect our defense.”
Gordon had eight boards for the Lobos and Cameron Bairstow had five in 12 minutes of playing time. “I thought Cam gave us some good stuff,” said Alford.
Tony Snell, UNM’s leading scorer went 1-of-6, all from 3-point range, and finished with three points. UNM’s Hugh Greenwood played 10 minutes and went 0-of-3 from the floor, had three assists, but didn’t appear to be 100 percent playing on a recovering ankle sprain.
Second Half: San Diego State 45, Lobos 39
The Lobos got off to a solid start in the second half, just not spectacular like the first half. UNM went up 38-32 on two buckets by Fenton and a dunk by A.J. Hardeman. Gordon made two free throws at 16:05 to push UNM up 40-34.
The Aztecs came back again using a nice combination of drives, penetration buckets and treys to slip ahead 49-48 going into the 11:30 break. The athleticism and talent on both clubs led to a lot of scoring.
The Lobos then hit a bad stretch. At the 10:58 mark, another Aztecs bomb had the San Diego visitors up 52-48. UNM’s McDonald missed from the corner and SDSU scored a layup in transition. UNM was down 54-48 and Alford burned a time out.
The Aztecs’ run wasn’t over. A Snell turnover inside led to an SDSU dunk out of transition. UNM missed on its end and the Aztecs launched in another bomb. It was 59-48 with 7:21 to go and Alford pulled his troops in for another huddle. At the 7:10 media break, UNM was still down 59-48. The Lobos needed to grab momentum and get The Pit back into the game.
The Lobos did their fair share of scoring over the next few minutes, but couldn’t control the Aztecs’ quickness. Fenton cut the gap to 59-51, but the Aztecs scored two unanswered baskets – one a savage baseline dunk – and SDSU was up 64-51; 13 points with 3:40 to go.
The Lobos made a few big shots down the stretch and the Aztecs helped out by missing some free throw early down that stretch. McDonald hit a long trey following a break as a trailer and UNM was down 64-54. But the clock was now a huge enemy, too.
The Lobos cut their hole to 66-59 with 1:09 to play. The Aztecs went up 67-59 on a Tapley free throw and SDSU got the rebound on his second shot, a miss. Tapley was fouled again with 50.6 to play and made two free throws to push the Aztecs up 69-59. A McDonald trey made it 69-62 with 40 ticks to go, but SDSU made six straight at the line to seal the Aztecs’ finish.
First Half: Lobos 31, San Diego State 30
The start was, well, perfect. It was perfect because of what the Lobos did and perfect because the sold out Pit was mad dog from the beginning. The Pit’s sixth man was breathing down the Aztecs’ necks and the Aztecs were feeling it.
The Aztecs were feeling the Lobos, too. Gordon started the festivities with a backdoor dunk. The Pit went nuts. Then Gordon got a reverse layup, then Williams hit a trey, then Fenton hit a trey and then SDSU Coach Steve Fisher was up begging for a timeout.
Lobo Jamal Fenton with Drew Gordon in the background |
The Aztecs were reeling and the Lobos were rolling. At the first media break, UNM was up 10-0. Of course, it had to change. The Aztecs were too good to just stand around and take this beating. After all, this was the Aztecs team that had just slapped down then-No. 12 UNLV.
The Aztecs got their feet under them, caught their breath, adjusted to the hot breath steaming out of the 15,411 fans, and scratched back to 12-10. SDSU was on a 10-2 run. At the 12:20 mark, it was a 12-2 run and the score was tied at 12-all.
McDonald changed that hitting a long trey in front of the SDSU bench following an offensive board by Bairstow. UNM carried that 15-12 lead into a break at the 10:35 mark. The Lobos were shooting 37.5 percent at that point and UNLV was at 45.3 percent. UNM was ahead on the boards 10-6 and SDSU was up in steals, 4-1.
The Lobos came out of the break and McDonald hit another trey 18-12. SDSU scored underneath too easy, 18-14. McDonald then rolled off a pick and hit a tough, turnaround jumper on the baseline: 20-14. SDSU answered with a trey and Williams scored on a drive to let UNM take a 22-17 lead into the 7:42 break. McDonalds and Williams had combined for 15 of UNM’s 22 points.
The Aztecs came out of the break to hit a trey: 22-20 and then scored another easy one in the paint to form a 22-22 tie. McDonald then hit another big bucket under pressure as the clock was ticking down to zero: 25-22. Hardeman followed with a dunk and SDSU hit another trey at the top of the key and the Lobos were up 27-25.
The Aztecs then took their first lead of the half, 28-27, knocking down a trey after an offensive board. UNM then got two buckets inside from Gordon wedged around an SDSU drive past him and UNM closed to the 31-30 halftime edge.
Xavier Thames led all first-half scorers with 13 points, going 3-of-4 from long range. Chase Tapley added seven points for SDSU. The Lobos got 11 points from McDonald, who went 3-of-5 from behind the line. UNM’s Gordon went 4-of-4 from the field to finish with eight points and Williams had seven points. Bairstow was a big spark off the bench with five rebounds. Snell, UNM’s leading scorer, was shut out in the first half going 0-of-3 from the floor.
The Lobos controlled the boards in the first half, 22-15. SDSU had five steals to UNM’s one, but UNM had only those five turnovers. SDSU turned the ball over three times. UNM shot 38.2 percent in the half and SDSU shot 42.9