Jan. 26, 2012
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New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In The Pit
Wednesday: New Mexico Lobos 85, Colorado State Rams 52
Saturday: 4 p.m. (MT), TCU at New Mexico – The Pit
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
In throwing out the stats and numbers for this Pit romp & roll, it might be necessary to repeat the most important number a few times just so nobody thinks the 85-52 final favoring the Lobos is a typo.
Or an attempt at fiction.
Yes, the Lobos beat the Colorado State Rams by 33 points. Yes, the Lobos beat the Rams by 10 more points in The Pit than Duke beat the Rams in Durham, N.C. Yes, the Lobos beat a solid CSU team, 85-52.
Now, let’s move on to some other fun numbers.
The Lobos had all 11 scholarship players in the scoring column.
Drew Gordon had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds and also had three assists, three blocks and two steals.
Jamal Fenton came off the bench to score 10 points, dish out six assists, add two steals and had zero turnovers.
Colorado State shot 21.4 percent from 3-point range.
The Rams had five assists, which might look like more of a typo than the final score, especially when you consider the Lobos had 23 assists. Hey, don’t these Rams like each other. CSU had two assists in the second half.
UNM also had seven blocks, won the board battle 37-27, shot 52.2 percent and did it all in front of a Pit crowd of 14,089.
“I think the main thing today was intensity,” said Gordon. “We got to the right spots on defense and made big plays. We keyed on defense in practice and it carries into the game. It paid off.”
Gordon and Fenton were joined in double figures by Phillip McDonald and Tony Snell with 12 apiece. Demetrius Walker had nine points and three assists with no turnovers. Cameron Bairstow had four offensive boards in 12 minutes and Chad Adams had three offensive boards in 14 minutes. CSU had eight offensive boards in 200 minutes.
Really, the Lobos performance was almost perfect, except they didn’t get to the free-throw line much and they did open the second half allowing CSU to score the first five points.
That forced Lobo Coach Steve Alford to burn a time out and burn a few Lobos, er, ears and after that the romp & roll was on.
CSU was down 66-48 with 6:51 to play and then Gordon threw down a monstrous dunk followed by a softer dunk by Tony Snell and the Rams were pretty much hornless the rest of the way.
UNM’s biggest lead was 35 points with 43 ticks to play.
“I thought we played strong. I thought we attacked. I thought we were physical,” said Alford. “When we play defense like that, we are a very good basketball team. We defended the 3-point line. I thought getting them off the 3-point line was a big key.”
CSU went 3-14 from long range, which is harmful for a Ram team not exactly intimidating in the paint. The best stat line for CSU was going 17-of-23 from the free-throw line. UNM went 6-of-8.
“We’re not getting to the free-throw line all of a sudden, which is a concern,” said Alford. “We have to figure that out. But I was pleased tonight. That was a very good basketball team we beat tonight and to beat them the way we did was impressive.”
The win pushed UNM to 16-4 overall and 2-2 in the Mountain West race. The win gets the Lobos within striking distance of San Diego State, which won at Wyoming on Tuesday, and UNLV which survived in overtime Wednesday at Boise State. The Aztecs have yet to lose in the MW and UNLV has the lone loss at SDSU.
The Lobos play host to TCU at 4 p.m., Saturday in The Pit. UNM, TCU, Wyoming and Colorado State are all log jammed at 2-2 in league play. But maybe the parity of the league was reflected in Boise State (now 0-4) pulling UNLV into overtime.
Second Half: New Mexico 38, Colorado State 23
The Rams came out and quickly cut UNM’s 47-29 halftime lead to 47-34. Alford, not enjoying his Lobos’ start, called a timeout at the 17:28 mark. The break seemed to serve its purpose. Alford got his Lobos’ attention. UNM came out and quickly ran its lead to 53-34.
Really, that ended it. The Rams hung around at that deficit for a while, but couldn’t cut into it. A monstrous dunk by Gordon allowed UNM to carry a 68-48 lead into the final six minutes of play. Snell followed that with a softer dunk to push the Lobos up 70-48.
Alford went to his bench heavily in the final five minutes and, if anything, the intensity level went up as the Lobo subs decided to enjoy – and contribute – to the romp.
UNM coasted into the 85-52 win.
First Half: New Mexico 47, Colorado State 29
It was a good start, a good finish and the stuff in the middle wasn’t bad for the Lobos either.
UNM shot 57.6 percent in the half, going 5-of-10 from long range. All ten Lobos who played scored with Fenton and William each scoring seven points. UNM also had eight Lobos pulling down at least one rebound.
The Lobos had 13 assists in the half to three assists for CSU. The Rams used the free-throw line to help them, knocking in 10-of-11. UNM was 4-of-6 from the line.
At the 15:44 media break, the Lobos were up 10-4. UNM came out shooting at an 80 percent clip behind Snell going 2-of-2 from long range. CSU had some decent looks, but were shooting 2-of-6, going 0-of-3 from behind the line at that point.
Drew Gordon on defense |
The Lobos continued to shoot well, but not quite at that torrid pace. At the 11:11 break, UNM was up 19-12. Fenton provided UNM’s final basket on that count by hauling down a rebound and going coast-to-coast for a layup.
The Lobos were hitting at a 61.5 pace at that mark. CSU was shooting 44.4 percent. CSU had no assists at that point and UNM had six. The Lobos were up on the boards, 19-12.
The Lobos came out of their huddle and Fenton picked up a loose ball on a scramble. That led to a Walker trey, a 22-12 UNM lead, and a quick CSU timeout at 10:31.
The Lobos continued to roll.
Chad Adams scored a long step-away jumper to push UNM up 31-19. Greenwood got a steal on the other end and the Lobos were off running. Williams missed on his drive, but Greenwood was there for the follow and a 33-19 UNM lead. CSU burned another timeout, down 14 in The Pit.
At the 3:29 break, a Fenton layup off a steal had UNM up 37-21, up 16 points. UNM was shooting 57.7 percent, 4-of-8 from 3-point range. The Lobos had ten players in the scoring column and 14 points off the bench.
It got worse for CSU, better for UNM. Walker launched in a trey and the Lobos were up 40-21. Gordon then stepped in front of a telegraphed CSU pass and fed Fenton for a layup plus one. The littlest Lobo converted and UNM was up 43-21.
CSU had a short run to cut that gap to 44-29, but McDonald banged in a trey just before the buzzer to push UNM to its 47-29 lead.